Of Penance and Security
by princessbinas
Summary: In attempts of breaking free from Naomi's control and exile himself, Castiel travels to another dimension with the Angel Tablet. Things go awry for everyone as the seraph steers the forgotten Shinobi World towards an unpredictable future. Not even the S Rank criminals are safe from Cass's influence. Rated Teen due to the nature of Supernatural and Naruto. Updates are not scheduled.
1. Welcome to Earth 2

Note: For village names, and only village names, I will use Japanese for the ones I make up. Jutsu will use English Translations unless there is no official translation. For those who want village translations, here they are:

Konohagakure = Hidden Leaf Village | Iwagakure = Hidden Stone Village | Sunagakure = Hidden Sand Village | Kirigakure = Hidden Mist Village | Kumogakure = Hidden Cloud Village | Amegakure = Hidden Rain | Uree-mura = Lamentation Village

As for height references for later: The Eight Tails (Gyuki) is approximately 108 meters tall. I am assuming all the complete Tailed Beasts (including Kurama at 100%) are around the same height, so the Hokage Tower is about 54 meters tall. Comparing that to the Chrysler Tower (which is 318.9 meters tall), Castiel's true form is about 2.95277777778 times bigger than a Tailed Beast and 5.90555555556 times bigger than the Hokage Building. My source for the eight tails came from here: forums*spacebattles*com/threads/naruto-calc-thread*243774/.

Also special thanks to MsMJ and 15Stepsdown for helping me with the characterization. They are awesome people, and I highly recommend their works!

Hopefully those who don't know Supernatural/Naruto don't get lost. I am sure I put in enough background information to prevent you all from not knowing what is going on. If you are still struggling to understand, or want to know more, I advise checking out Supernatural/Naruto. The shows are great, and there are plenty of episodes for binge watchers. Though for Naruto, I'd recommend skipping some of the filler minus the Three Tails Arc (this filler arc was good filler for the fact I found it funny with Deidara and Tobi's antics at the dango shop and capturing the Three Tails).

.

.

If there was one thing he wanted to avoid doing at all costs (besides time traveling), it would be dimension hopping. Castiel's body ached with weakness from the draining ability. It also didn't help that he had just hidden the Angel Tablet on his person to keep himself safe from Naomi's mind control and keep it away from all angels, demons, humans, and anyone else who would abuse the scripture written on it.

Castiel lifted up his head a bit, trying to get back on his feet. In the end, he just collapsed on the soft, vibrant green grass that was stained with the blood that dripped from his mouth and nose. He had to make sure he and the tablet were safe. He didn't want to make the mistake of being ignorant of someone following him. However, that wasn't meant to be. Instead he passed out from exhaustion. In his mind, it was as if someone pulled a quiet, black cover over his eyes and ears, allowing him to drift from the waking world.

.

A rice farmer plowed through the rice patties, gathering the freshly grown grains from the pools of crisp water. His forehead was drenched with sweat from the afternoon sun and hard labor. This year was full of abundance, a really good sign for the small, poor village of lamentation known as Uree-mura. This very village sat in a comfortable position near the Land of Fire and the Land of Water, giving it the best suited climate for year around agriculture of many kinds.

As the farmer began to take his full rice basket back to the drop off point for it, a flash of pure white light erupted a short distance away. Dropping his harvest, the farmer rushed in the direction of the disruption. What he found startled him. It was an unconscious man with short, messy black hair in a weird suit (with the blue tie on backwards) and a beige trench coat. Not wasting a second, the farmer picked up the man and rushed back towards the village.

As he went through the tiny, impoverished village, many heads turned at the sight of the panicked farmer. The villagers began to follow the farmer and the unconscious man to the abandoned medical ninja's hut that was last used back in the Second Shinobi War. The farmer quickly dusted off the unused cot and set the man on it.

"Someone, get me some cold water!" the farmer called out.

A little girl nodded her head and raced to the village pump. She pushed a nearby wooden bucket up to it and began to pump some water into it. She dipped her hand into it, making sure it was the right temperature. When she could confirm it was indeed cold to the touch, she raced back to medic hut, making sure she was careful enough to not spill a single drop of the precious resource.

"Here you go, papa." The little girl said.

"Thank you." The farmer said. "You did well, Suiko."

"Will the strange man be okay?" Suiko asked.

"I believe he will be." The farmer said with smile.

With those few words ringing in her ears, Suiko smiled. Even though she didn't know the stranger, she just felt safe around him for some reason. There was this foreign energy that surrounded him. It was strong, warm, and loyal. At the same time, there was a tinge of sadness to it.

"Can we sleep in here tonight, papa?" Suiko asked.

"Sure we can." The farmer said. "It will make it easier to watch over him."

With that, the farmer got up and approached the curious villagers. This caused the chatter amongst the faceless villagers to quiet down. They all wanted to hear what the farmer had to say about the strange man.

"It's okay neighbors." The farmer said. "The stranger is safe now. He should wake up soon."

"How do you know, Hiroko?" one villager asked.

"Because I can feel it." Hiroko stated.

.

Approximately one day later, the strange man woke up to the sound of birds chirping and a wooden spoon scraping the bottom of a metal bowl full of liquid. He groaned as he began to sit up, just to feel the hand of Hiroko slowly and softly guiding him back down onto the cot.

"Don't move." Hiroko said. "You need to rest."

"I can assure you that I am well rested now." The man spoke as he sat up, despite Hiroko's firm hand being in the way.

The farmer looked in wonder at the man. When he had found him, the man was completely unresponsive and had blood trailing from his nose and lips. Now, all signs of injury and strain that was present were gone. Hiroko had only heard of Jinchuriki having such advanced healing. But this man was not such a being. He was something else if the pure energy that radiated off of him meant anything.

"W-who are you?" Hiroko stammered.

The man thought for a moment, obviously considering over what he should say next. From the nearly expressionless face, Hiroko could not tell if he was hiding something or not. Eventually he spoke, and it sent shivers and confusion down the farmer's spine.

"My name is Castiel, and I am an angel of the Lord. Is there anything I can do here to help?"

.

Castiel was handed a small sickle. He looked at the tool, recalling it as one of man's earliest tools for agriculture. It was also used as a weapon in some cultures if his tampered memory could prove to be reliable. He looked up at Hiroko with the best-confused face he could muster. He may have watched humans gather grains with the tool, but that did not translate into him knowing how to properly use it. In the end, his confusion was not well can communicated and was told to help gather the grains of rice anyways. Without questioning it, he began to attempt to gather the grains with it, leading to a slight accident after the first few tries. He had stabbed himself in the gut. Hiroko rushed to Castiel's side and began to examine the wound. To his never ending surprise, the wound stitched itself up, leaving a bloodstain as the only sign of injury on Castiel's strange suit.

"We're going have to find you some different clothes." Hiroko stated, noticing how badly that Castiel's clothes were torn and soiled from the injury.

"Actually, that won't be necessary." Castiel replied. "My clothes will mend themselves quickly."

Just as Castiel said, right before Hiroko's eyes, the suit mended itself back together. What was even more bewildering was the fact that the blood and dirt that was accumulated there also disappeared. It was not anything to shrug off in the farmer's opinion. It was truly amazing.

"But still, it may draw too much unwanted attention." Hiroko said. "We don't exactly wear that style of suit, much less every day."

Despite Castiel's confusion and protests, Hiroko lead the angel to a seamstress's house. The only thing keeping him from knocking Hiroko unconscious and white washing his memories of his presence was the fact he needed him to help him find a suitable job that would satisfy his need for penance for the time being.

.

From the moment that Hiroko got Castiel some replacement clothes in the form of a simple gray kimono top and shorts (the only thing to remain was the iconic trench coat) to sun down, they had been searching for possible chores and jobs that Castiel could do well enough. In the end, nothing had satisfying results in Hiroko's eyes. Castiel had accidentally hurt himself when it came to tools like the sickle, broke the eggs on purpose, thinking that was how one harvested them. Even sewing wasn't for him as the clothing he had tried to make had fallen apart with ease.

Even the one thing he could successfully do was not even suitable. And that thing was gathering honey. Apparently, Castiel had a very awkward way of doing it that Hiroko hoped he had to never see again. It was just too… Bizarre, and that was the only word that was tactful enough to describe the weirdness.

"I'm sorry we couldn't find you anything to do." Hiroko said sadly. "I wish we could do more for you, but maybe it is best if you go see if one of the larger villages nearby have work you can do."

"I understand. Thousands of years watching humanity grow and learn does not mean you know how to do a certain task." Castiel replied, causing Hiroko to raise an eyebrow. Castiel sure was a strange person in Hiroko's opinion.

Just as Castiel was about to be on his way, someone rushed past him with a panic look. The anxiety and fear for another's life was very strong within the villager's thoughts. Needless to say, it grabbed Castiel's attention very quickly.

"Hiroko! Come quick!" the villager panted. "Something happened to your daughter! She's unconscious!"

Those words sent alarm bells in Hiroko's mind. Without a single breath taken or exhaled, he dashed away with the villager who alarmed him. Castiel watched them as they went towards the rice paddies. Even though his face didn't express it, he knew right away this was something he could definitely handle without any problems or hesitation.

Within the blink of an eye, Castiel teleported away and reappeared behind Hiroko and the villager within the sound of fluttering feathered wings. Before the three of them was a teenage girl and Hiroko's little girl, Suiko. Suiko's unmoving form was spread out on the ground. Her skin was red and felt very warm to the touch if the heat radiating off her was anything to go by. Her breaths were labored and slow as sweat poured ferociously from her pores. On Suiko's left arm, there was a large, swollen mass that had a bite mark in its center. From the looks of the puncture wound, the bite was given to her by a spider. A Sydney Funnel Spider to be exact, which was odd considering how this world had major differences down to the essence of the human soul. Even the corn was different from the corn he saw back on the other Earth. What was not helping in this matter was the fact that the girl was going through anaphylactic shock, one of the sources of her unconsciousness.

"We have to get her to the Hidden Leaf Village!" the teenage girl said. "They could identify the spider that bit her!"

"She won't make it." Hiroko said with fear and sadness lacing his voice. "By the time we get her there, she would be dead. Just like her mother. Nothing can save her," with that, Hiroko held Suiko close to his chest. "I am very sorry, baby."

Castiel moved forward, startling everyone but Hiroko, who was mourning the inevitable loss of the last member of his family. The angel reached out a hand and touched the girl's forehead with two finger tips, causing a small, very faint glow of warm, white light. Hiroko felt Suiko's temperature dropped to a normal level and her breathing normalize. He gasped as he began to hear his daughter wake up.

"Papa?" Suiko moaned hoarsely.

Hiroko was at a loss of words. Tears continued to stream down his face. This time, sadness was not the cause. It was relief and comfort from his daughter's life being spared. He looked up at Castiel with eyes full of gratitude.

"Thank you, Castiel." Hiroko said.

Castiel's face did not change from its near expressionless features. All he did that gave certainty that he accepted the thanks was a small nod. From that moment, everyone knew what Castiel could do in the village. It was something that the village desperately needed due to being too far away from the Hidden Villages for medical emergencies to be above the 30% survival rate. With the angel around acting as a medic, they would no longer have to fear dying from severe allergic reactions to poisonous spiders and devastating accidents.

"You can stay here." The villager who alerted Hiroko said. "We are in need of a medic, and we would love to have you around."

Castiel thought it over. It wasn't a smart move for him to stay in one place for very long, especially when his brothers, sisters, and Crowley realize he was on another Earth. The odds of them finding which one it was another story. The odds stood at a near improbable chance of 1 in 700 billion. He had made sure it was distant in angel terms and had enough activity to throw off the ones who would come closest to finding him with the exception of Gabriel (who he was certain was dead). With this in mind he made his decision, knowing the needs of the tiny village.

"I would like to stay, but that goes against what is needed of me." Castiel stated, causing many grateful looks turn sad. "But if you need healing while I still walk on this planet, just pray and I will come."

The last part caused hope to return to his audience's eyes. Before anyone could say anything, Castiel vanished within the sound of fluttering feathered wings. They kept what Castiel said in mind and did not have any doubt about his words due to what they have seen.

So days passed on. Castiel occasionally popped in to heal a couple of people who had fallen victim to the poisonous spiders that just didn't seem to belong in this world and one or two resurrections on the side. There was also the rare occurrence of a "ninja" that he would run into with heavy wounds from battle. Those Castiel healed without hesitation (this also included resurrecting sometimes). This in turn caused rumors to be spread around the surrounding area. Most made out Castiel as a very powerful medical ninja who could rival someone called Tsunade. A select few had said he was some sort of powerful being who took on a human form to heal the ones who were suffering of great illness, injury, and impairment. The latter one was not widely accepted and garnered heavy negative criticism. However, unknown to them, the latter was very close to the truth.

Not before long, many, many ninjas, ninja villages, rouges and bounty hunters, and groups began turning their attention towards the village with morbid curiosity. Just what was going on in that village and what truly caused the surge in unexplainable miracles?

.

Within the Hokage's office, the fifth Hokage slept with her head down on her desk. Papers were all over the place and two bottles of sake were lazily lying on the polished wood. A third bottle was loosely in the left hand of Lady Fifth.

"Lady Tsunade, wake up!" Shizune said as she shook the sleeping Hokage.

"Huh? What is it Shizune?" Tsunade asked with a deep yawn.

Shizune pulled out a medium sized folder, making the hung over Hokage moan in despair. Paperwork was the bane of her existence. It has caused her many sleepless nights and numerous headaches.

"Can't someone else do those?" Tsunade asked.

"Sorry, Lady Tsunade." Shizune said. "These aren't like the last load where I was able to help. They are mostly mission papers and intelligence."

Tsunade sighed, knowing that she was not going to worm her way out of this batch. She took the folder and began to sort through what was present. The missions within the folder contained most D and C Ranks with the exception of an A Rank protection mission for the Fire Daimyo's casual visit to the Land of Wind. Once she got those organized by rank, she moved onto the intelligence papers. From what she could tell, there was no new information on the two Akatsuki Members who had slipped into the Land of Fire, which worried her a bit. Instead, she found something that confused her beyond all belief. When she did a double take, she felt uneasy. There was a lot off about what she read and needed to get to the bottom of it fast. With all of the teams out on missions of their own, she had no choice but to interrupt one team's progress in training. Without any hesitation, she looked up at Shizune with a flicker of urgency in her eyes.

"Shizune, bring me Team Seven as fast as you can. I have a job for them to do. I don't care what they are doing or how close to a breakthrough Naruto is, I need them now."

"Yes, my lady!"

With that, Shizune rushed out of the room to go collect the team requested. When Tsunade was positive that no one was close by she took a swig of sake. This was by far going to be one of team's weirdest missions and the one that would be a pain to categorize later due to ambiguity.

Once the bottle was three-fourths empty, Shizune returned with the members of Team Seven and their stand in jonin, Yamato, who wore a neutral expression and was ready to hear what was needed of him and his team. Naruto looked pretty upset, probably not too enthused with the fact he got pulled away from his training. Sakura looked ready to absorb the necessary details and hoped that Naruto doesn't derail the explanations. Finally, Sai was just as ready to listen to the instructions and important details as Sakura and Yamato.

"We came as fast as we could when Shizune told us that you needed us." Yamato stated.

"I am glad you all did." Tsunade began. "A nearby village has been in the focus of some unsettling rumors as of late involving resurrection and miraculous healing that even I would probably not be able to accomplish with a one-hundred percent success rate. The biggest concern is that I suspect that someone like the Akatsuki could take advantage of if given the opportunity and that the rumors prove to be true."

"Are you sure that you are not just jealous, Granny Tsunade?" Naruto butted in, causing a tick mark to appear on Tsunade's forehead.

"Care to repeat that sentence?" Tsunade groaned.

"Naruto, don't be so rude!" Sakura scolded.

"Hey, I am just being honest." Naruto defended. "This guy obviously has more powerful healing jutsu if he can bring back the dead. Which is why I need to go back to my training, so I can deal with guys who are powerful!"

"And bringing back the dead is forbidden!" Sakura reminded, smacking him in the shoulder.

"Naruto does bring up a good point, surprisingly." Sai said, gaining a confused look from Sakura and a rather insulted look from Naruto.

"What do you mean/What do you mean by 'surprisingly'?!" Sakura asked/Naruto hissed.

"If this mystery person can bring back the dead with assumed little trouble, then how exactly powerful is this guy?" Sai supplied.

"I agree, good work Naruto, keep up the good thinking." Yamato complimented.

Naruto turned away, still looking very insulted. He muttered "I can have good ideas too, ya know" under his breath, which was ignored by everyone else. The reason why was because Yamato was gaining the information needed for the mission that involved location of the most sightings of the miracles taking place.

"Then it's settled, get moving." Tsunade said. "And Naruto, the faster you finished this task as a team, the sooner you will be able to get back to your training."

That last part perked up Naruto a bit. He flashed a smile and waved good bye as he and his teammates hurried out of the office. When the room was clear on more, Tsunade sighed. She had feeling this was going to be a big pile up for everyone in more ways than one.

.

Things began to slow down as nearly teary eyed, thoroughly exhausted Shikamaru watched his captain, Asuma-sensei, fall to the ground with fatal injuries adorning both his vitals and non-vitals. A crazed look was upon Hidan's face as he began to go into a rather creepy ecstasy place in his mind. Kotetsu and Izumo were unable to reach Asuma's side due to Kakuzu keeping them back with his thick, black threads that emerged from his arms.

Just as Hidan pulled out the pike that had went through his heart, a sound of flapping swan wings filled the air. This was followed up by an invisible force throwing Hidan out of his circle. This purely enraged the insane man-child.

"Who the hell just did that?!" Hidan screamed. "Show yourself, asshole!"

"I did, though I am not a donkey's anus."

Right in front of Hidan, a man who was eleven centimeters taller than him appeared, causing looks of surprise to follow. The man had short, shaggy black hair, a faint gray shadow on his face, a simple short kimono with shorts, and a long, beige trench coat.

"I'm Castiel." The man stated bluntly as his blues eyes pierced into Hidan's purple, to which the albino scoffed at.

"Yeah, sure, Asstiel. Can you just get out of my way?" Hidan asked rather rudely, "I've got three others in line for sacrificing right here and I don't want them to get away! So move!"

With that Hidan got up and began stalking towards Shikamaru. In another sound of rustling wings, a hand had firmly grasped Hidan's hair, making him yelp. Hidan turned around to see Castiel right behind him, even though he should have been about five meters behind right now for he had not heard footsteps.

"I will not let you hurt the kid or anyone else."

"Who the hell do you think you are to say that?!" Hidan yelled and brought out his three bladed scythe.

Hidan quickly turned around and slashed his weapon at Castiel, causing a bit of blood splatter. The air tensed around the leaf ninja as Hidan licked the blood off and rushed back into his circle with a dark chuckle. He stabbed himself in his left forearm, causing blood to splatter on himself and Castiel. His laughing began to slow when he looked up to see that Castiel hadn't flinched or screamed and the injured area was completely healed. With a puzzled look he stabbed himself in the left hand with the same results, which caused the zealot to stab somewhere else with the same results yet again, thoroughly ticking Hidan off.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! Why aren't you withering in pain?!" Hidan screamed as he stabbed himself in the shoulder. "Come on! Scream, damn it! Just friggin' scream and beg for mercy already! I can't give Jashin a sacrifice that can't be tormented by major blood loss! That would be an insult!"

"There is nothing wrong with me." Castiel said as he began to approach Hidan. "Earthly weapons cannot harm me, nor my vessel."

"DAMN YOU!" Hidan shrieked and stabbed himself in the heart.

Blood spurted briefly on Castiel's chest before disappearing thanks to his regeneration. Hidan dropped his pike and scythe, at a complete loss of words from what had just happened.

"Wh-what t-the h-hell are you?!" Hidan sputtered. "No one has ever survived my curse! NO ONE, YOU HEAR ME!"

"I am an angel, you ass." Castiel stated and tapped his fingers on Hidan's forehead, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.

Castiel turned his head to Kakuzu, who by this point finally decided to turn around due to Hidan's relentless screaming had turned into sudden silence. There he saw his knocked out partner at Castiel's feet. He retracted his threads, zoomed over to Hidan's body and left without a word.

The leaf ninjas looked at Castiel, not sure to feel thankful or fear. In the end, more of the latter showed as Izumo and Kotetsu scurried a bit back from the angel while Shikamaru held his breath. Sensing the tensions, Castiel approached Asuma's weakened, near death body and touched him. After a very faint, quick burst of light, Asuma's injuries disappeared and he began to shift with a bit with a small moan before going to sleep from Castiel's prolonged touch.

"He had suffered major blood loss and organ damage," Castiel said. "It is best if he sleeps for now."

Before anything could be said, Castiel disappeared, leaving Shikamaru stunned and at a loss for words. He was unable to describe how he felt. His captain, a friend, was just brought back from the brink of inevitable death by a random stranger who could handle an immortal man with little effort. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, he silently thanked the angel who saved his captain's life. Despite this, he kept the fact that Asuma technically died in front of him at the forefront of his thoughts as well. Not only that, what happened right before him was littered with holes in most of the logic he knew. Despite that, he had to report what happened to the Hokage immediately.

Also, by this point, Ino and Choji had arrived. They quickly helped Shikamaru pick up Asuma's sleeping form while Izumo and Kotetsu helped up Shikamaru. And with that, the Ino-Shika-Cho team, Izumo, and Kotetsu left the area and headed towards the Hidden Leaf.

.

"I can't believe it!" Naruto exclaimed as he and his team reentered the Leaf Village. "Not only was that a dead end, but we wasted a good day on things we already knew!"

Naruto kicked a rock into the distance, upset that the mission pretty much went flat on its face the moment they asked the rice farmer's daughter, Suiko. She pretty much reiterated everything that the rumors had already said from miraculous healing abilities to resurrection.

"Naruto, not all intelligence missions end with enemy ninja ambushing or cleverly placed traps." Yamato stated. "Few are rather anti-climactic and very few are like the one we were on."

"I was pretty sure we did get a piece of evidence that we lacked before." Sai spoke up.

"I wouldn't exactly call praying for someone to come and have said person arrive that very second out of nowhere evidence." Sakura said with a frown. "It sounds like something out of a fairy tale and a bit too cheesy to include in a final report."

Team Seven took another few steps forward just to be passed by two of the squads that were sent out on the capture mission that involved two Akatsuki Members entering the Land of Fire.

"Is that, Shikamaru and Asuma-Sensei?!" Naruto asked, shocked to see them being carried back into the village.

Without a single reply having the chance to be uttered, Naruto raced after them.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out. "Ugh!"

With that, Sakura, Sai, and Yamato chased after the orange wearing knucklehead. It was not a very enjoyable thing to do in any regards. In fact, it just felt really unnecessary due to the fact that Naruto didn't need to take off like that.

.

Asuma laid in the hospital bed, still soundly sleeping. Naruto hovered over him, wondering what could have happened. There were no obvious injuries, which kind of worried him as even as far as he knew, there could be internal injuries. After all, he did go up against two Akatsuki Members who he was unfamiliar with.

"Naruto." Sakura said as she walked in.

"Hey." Naruto replied.

"I talked with the nurse who checked on Asuma," Sakura began, "They are saying that he is going to be completely fine. They found no injuries and surprisingly no more tar or damage in his lungs from all the cigarettes he has smoked."

"I thought that stuff didn't go away."

"It does depending on many variables. What doesn't is the damages it leaves behind. That's what has the nurses and I stumped."

Naruto thought a bit. There was something missing from the puzzle. Something that had been popping up all day long since they were on that mission.

"What if, he met that miracle guy?" Naruto proposed.

Sakura thought is over for a second, realizing that was a very solid theory. She beamed at Naruto.

"That's it!" Sakura said. "You could be onto something. However, I don't think we are going to be getting answers from Asuma-sensei anytime soon. We would have to visit Shikamaru."

"Okay then, what are we waiting for?" Naruto asked. "The sooner we get answers, the sooner we can inform Granny Tsunade and I can get back to my training!"

With that, Naruto once more raced past Sakura, eager to complete the task he had set his mind to. Sakura shook her head with a smile. Naruto would never change. Just before she could walk out the door, she heard a crash and a yelp from a lady and a "I'm sorry" that came from Naruto. Whatever just happened, Sakura honestly didn't want to know.

.

That encounter with the arrogant albino, Hidan, certainly had been strange. He had not expected to see a man ingest blood to activate a curse. Yet at the same time, it just didn't feel like a curse. No, he did not feel every sensation Hidan felt (which was a good thing considering how highly inappropriate it was overall considering time and place). He had only felt the injuries that Hidan inflicted on himself before they healed over thanks to his "healing factor" as Dean called it sometimes. Curses normally did not involve such barbaric behavior. Normally they were cast only for the victim to be affected, not both caster and victim. Then again, Hidan was enjoying himself a bit too much, kind of like how the babysitter was enjoying being slapped in that one show that was called "porn". Then again, he probably shouldn't be thinking about that at a time like this.

Castiel had extensive knowledge about the world his Father created, but he still didn't know everything. He knew that many worlds of different dimensions were made, but what extent they all differed was unknown due to intense focus on their Earth, Earth One. The main Earth. The one with the history of the Winchesters and Campbells. The primary Apocalypse. Heck, even with the Neanderthals and their unusual, yet superior poetry. That was the Earth Castiel knew the most about.

This one, he was not assigned to watch and guard this one. No, those angels had long been wiped out in a surprise attack that no one in the garrison foresaw. To this day, none of the angels knew who killed the garrison off; only their Father knew. All that was known to the angels was that the absence of a garrison had led to the world fall into more world wars than the main Earth. More genetic instability in the offspring due to new outsiders reproducing with the humans and one of the said aliens eating a plant that further mutated the future of this world's humanity. It got so bad that most angels never wanted to touch the planet again, even if they had lost their Grace.

Just how much has this world changed since all angel contact had been shut off? It felt surreal and far from what he was used to. He had heard stories how this Earth was one of the ones that did not try to see if they could build a tower to Heaven (which was just nonsensical), and had kept its one single language. A language similar to Earth One's Japanese with a hint of English. However, the language barrier meant nothing to Castiel, for he had the ability to understand every language stored within his mind.

Castiel watched as a rather boxy, silly looking crow fly above, squawking what sounded like "Aho! Aho!". The angel glared at the crow, seeing what it was trying to do. That was when it decided to take a crap on Castiel. Castiel stepped away just in time to watch it fall to the ground right in front of him. The crow continued to squawk in amusement as it flew away, leaving a rather unamused angel behind.

Yep, this world had changed… A lot…

.

Kakuzu set Hidan's unconscious form down on the moist, limestone floor of a humid, mossy cave. Once that was done, he sat down cross-legged on the floor, paying no mind to the loose rocks and wiggling, nocturnal creepy crawlies of all kinds. With a series of hand signs, he made contact with the Akatsuki Leader, Pein. Once that was done, Kakuzu found himself in the sealing area. He wasn't there physically though; instead an astral projection was there alongside the ones of the currently active members that were awake.

"Why aren't you back yet?" Pein asked. "We are about to seal the Three Tails."

"Hidan ran into some trouble and is currently unconscious." Kakuzu stated. "I have no idea when he will wake up."

"What kind of trouble?" Pein asked, the eyes of his projection narrowing dangerously.

"A man claiming to be an angel and goes by the name of Castiel. He ambushed Hidan while he was sacrificing one of my bounties." Kakuzu replied. "I do not know how he managed to accomplish it, but from what I know, he is very powerful especially if he can survive Hidan's curse."

The words caused curious looks to emerge from the astral projections all over the room. One rather irritating voice, more irritating than Hidan's, rang.

"Another immortal? That sounds totally awesome! I wonder if he's into dango!"

"Shut up, Tobi, un."

"Yes. He is indeed immortal." Kakuzu confirmed. "But what really troubles me is the fact that he said that Earthly weapons can't harm him or the vessel that he is occupying."

The word vessel brought the traitor, Orochimaru, to mind, disgusting a vast majority of the Akatsuki members. Deidara scoffed, knowing if it weren't for that snake, he would still be roaming free, doing whatever he pleased when he pleased. Itachi on the other hand, had no outwards expression other than his usual calculating, almost bored looking expression. Despite this, Itachi felt great disgust within. The idea of a vessel being used was just revolting and even too evil for the evils that the Akatsuki had committed in their attempts for Pein's idea of peace.

"If this is the case, I will send a reconnaissance mission after we are done with the sealing." Pein finally spoke up. "We do not need any more threats to interfere with our goal. For now, we will have to do the sealing without Hidan."

"Yes, leader."

With that, the sealing began…


	2. One Way or Another

Binas: Welcome to chapter two. Hopefully my attention span can stay where it needs to be… Also I recommend listening to Blondie's " _One Way or Another_ " while reading this chapter. Yes, that song goes along with a good chunk of this chapter. Please excuse the shortness, I ran into the perfect cliffhanger sooner than I liked...

Reviews:

Not-Gonna-Update, NarutoSpardaUzumaki, and Ki guy (guest): Thanks, honestly, I was not expecting it to blow up this quickly. I guess you get an instant win when you mix outlandish concepts, Castiel, and the entire Naruto Universe.

Interviner: Once again, thank you. And here is your wish, my fellow fan. :)

Pony1997: I know. It is a pain to find a story that is both good and stars Cass. Many of which are just... Cringe worthy. One of the few good ones is basically Castiel trying to cook eggs and failing miserably until he brings in some no-traditional help.

Once again, special thanks to my beta/Supernatural Character Reference Person MsMJ and my Naruto Character Reference Person 15Stepsdown.

.

.

Blurred figures danced around Shikamaru's vision as he returned to the waking realm. Voices surrounded his ears, making his head hurt slightly from trying to sort out the nonsense of the distortion. Once the blurriness and distortion subsided, he was finally able to make out what was being said; "Come on! Wake up, Shikamaru!" Naruto, obviously. Not very surprising as he was one of the figures, Sakura being the other one.

Within the first few seconds of waking, he felt alright. That was until what had happened slammed right into his attention, causing him to bolt upright with heavy breaths.

"Whoa, Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted as he jumped back to prevent being hit by accident. "Be careful!"

"Sorry." Shikamaru said. "Is Asuma-sensei okay?"

"Yes, we just saw him a few seconds ago." Sakura said, allowing Shikamaru to sigh in relief. "He is the reason why we came in here. We want to know what happened out there on your mission."

"Yeah," Naruto butted in. "We think it might help us understand the mission we were sent on."

Shikamaru cracked his neck a bit, getting rid of the stiffness that was present. With that, he got into a slightly more comfortable position which in reality was leaning against the head post of the bed while still covered by the linen cloth.

"Alright." Shikamaru said. "But I warn you, even I am having a hard time making sense of it."

With the warning clear to both of Shikamaru's listeners, he began recapping everything that had transpired in his cell's fight against Hidan and Kakuzu right down to the most important variables like Hidan's immortality and cursed jutsu and Kakuzu's ability to stitch up others with black, tendon-esque threads. When Naruto pointed out how weird that was, Shikamaru only told him that it got even weirder. That brought in the entry of Team Seven's once nameless miracle man, who was as unkillable as Hidan, Castiel ("What kind of a name is that?!" Once again, Naruto) and how he revived Asuma and knocked out Hidan with only a tap to the forehead before causing Kakuzu to retreat with the immortal man-child in tow.

"Wow, you have to gotta be kidding me!" Naruto said. "This guy is just impossible! No one can take down the Akatsuki that easily! No one!"

"You're right." Sakura said. "Even I had trouble when I fought Sasori, and that was with Chiyo's help. It just doesn't make any sense."

"I told you it was really hard to make sense of." Shikamaru said. "For now, it is best if we see what the Hokage says and then take whatever action is needed from there."

"Okay then!" Naruto piped up. "Let's go!"

With that, Naruto raced out of the room, leaving Sakura and Shikamaru behind. Shikamaru just stared at the door with an unamused look on his face while Sakura simply face palmed.

' _Does he really expect me to go to the Hokage in just a hospital gown_ ,' Shikamaru thought, ' _Much less the fact that Izumo and Kotetsu by now would have already visited Tsunade? What a drag…_ '

.

Tsunade read through the report given by Izumo and was baffled by the implications just written all over it. And this just wasn't from the fact bringing back the dead and taking a vessel sounded way too much like her former teammate, Orochimaru. It was from the combination of everything else. It was as if she were reading a very poor attempt at a fake report that was written by Jiraiya (her other teammate) while under the influence of sake!

"I have no words to describe how childish this report sounds! I'd expect this kind of joke from Kotetsu, not you Izumo!" Tsunade snapped as she slammed her fist on the desk, "What really happened?!"

"Lady Tsunade, I was not kidding at all!" Izumo said, frightened by the fury behind the Fifth's pupils. "It all really happened!"

Tsunade's fiery eyes did not diminish at all from the words that poured out of Izumo's mouth. The air hung tensely over them, making it hard for Izumo to breathe a relieving sigh. Beads of sweat glistened his forehead, making it very obvious that he was scared of the wrath that was likely to befall on him.

"Do I have to remind you why you shouldn't make me frustrated?" Tsunade said darkly.

"No! No you don't! Please!" Izumo frantically said with panic lacing every single word. "If you don't believe me, you can always have a Yamanaka look through my memories!"

"Very well then…" Tsunade said. "If this little story of yours proves to be false in any way possible, I will be sure that the punishment you receive will teach you not to make up such ridiculous stories ever again."

Izumo nodded rapidly as Tsunade sent Shizune off to locate Inoichi Yamanaka. While Izumo now had the chance to prove the truth of what he saw, he knew he was far from out of the woods.

.

 _A little while later…_

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Tsunade asked, subtlety reminding what she had warned Izumo of earlier.

Izumo let a long breath out, still very nervous. He gave a nod to Tsunade.

"Very well, Inoichi, you can begin."

With the go ahead, Inoichi pressed his palm against Izumo's forehead. He closed his eyes and began searching the mind of Izumo, looking for the moments he described in the report. When he found it, he watched it very closely, analyzing everything that he could ranging from the man's mannerisms down to the fact he lacked a chakra signature. When he was done, Inoichi removed his palm and looked at Tsunade.

"There is no mistaking it, the report was not made up." Inoichi stated. "There was indeed a person named Castiel and all mentioned abilities were displayed perfectly in Izumo's memories."

Those words sent shock-waves through Tsunade. This had become a serious matter, regardless of the good Castiel had done. Not only that, there was no time to gather the perfect team for what would hopefully allow the chance for a successful capture mission. There were way too few choices in action that could work and a majority could lead to disaster without any doubt. Even the Legendary Sucker, Tsunade, could place a bet on that and win. It was a very sad fact.

"Inoichi, gather your former teammates." Tsunade ordered sternly, "I want you to track down this Castiel and interrogate him. Find out if he is a threat towards the safety of everyone. If he is, do not engage in battle against him unless it is absolutely mandatory for your team's safe return. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Lady Tsunade."

"Good."

With that, Inoichi left with a chakra enhanced leap. Izumo gulped, realizing how grave the situation was now. At least he was no longer risked facing the brunt of Tsunade's rage, and that was something that he was very glad about.

.

 _Five days later…_

Bandits, no matter the universe, were just pitiful. They had a very bad habit of succumbing to the one who they try to mug without realizing the major power differences. The bandit that had tried and absolutely failed to mug Castiel was a brunette with the typical complexion you would see in someone who had lived in rocky, mountainous terrain high up above sea level. A good estimate would be about 2,500 meters to 3,100 meters.

No, Castiel did not kill the man. In fact, killing, specifically humans, left very sour thoughts after everything he had done. This included trying to take his Father's place, unleashing a bunch of Leviathans from Purgatory, causing many people to be eaten by them via becoming livestock, killing hundreds of Dean clones in a simulation created by Naomi, and being controlled like a puppet by Naomi. So what did he do to leave the man sprawled all over the ground? He knocked him out. It was about all that he could do without making himself sick on a spiritual level.

Just as he was about to put the sleeping bandit somewhere where he wouldn't be harmed so easily, he heard a faint rustle of branches and leaves being disturbed by something with the mass of healthy humans. He looked up, examining for signs of someone spying on him from the tree tops. From what Castiel encountered so far (this includes thoughts that he could hear from pretty much anyone he tuned into), there were a lot of "attack first, ask questions later" people roaming this planet and even running the governments that were established. This had a chance of spelling bad news, even more so if his luck ran out and he got discovered by demons like Crowley or angels like Naomi. How? Humans have and always will be very social creatures; gossiping anything that they see or hear and in rare cases, touch.

Just as Castiel took a few steps back, two men attempted and succeeded jumping him. One of which was using a twig and the other clay insects that blew up. Castiel was sent backwards a bit with very little sustained damage. And scrapes and burns that had a chance to occur had healed within milliseconds. Castiel looked up and saw his attackers: a black haired man wearing a ridiculous swirling orange mask and a man with very long blonde hair who looked way too smug and proud for his own good. However, there was one unsettling thing about them, they both wore the same cloaks as Kakuzu and Hidan.

"Way to go, Deidara!" the black haired man clapped. "That was awesome!"

"Tobi, that was nothing, un." The blonde man, Deidara replied with a predatory grin, "Looks like we found the man that Hidan described."

Castiel glared at the duo. From what a quick mind read could gather, Deidara was a terrorist bomber who used to be a respectable artist in his hometown and now was feared and on a hit list for bombing his home. Tobi on the other hand was living behind so many masks, both literally and figuratively, it got pretty confusing very quickly.

"What do you two want?" Castiel asked.

"Hey, it's not our needs that need to be fulfilled!" Tobi piped up cheerfully to the point it would have been almost creepy to a casual listener. "It's our leader's! He wanted us to find you! Now that we have you, we can take you back! I mean this was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission, but hey, why not attempt to cap- GAK!"

Castiel had sent the cheerful Tobi a far distance away with one telekinetic throw. The stupidity that he just displayed was mind numbingly irritating. Deidara immediately got into a stance, both of his hands stuck inside his clay pouches. Once he removed them from there, he threw a barrage of explosive creatures that homed in on the seraph. Castiel managed to trick them into blowing up a tree via teleportation, which made Deidara slightly irritated, but not enough to lose his composure.

"I warn you, cease your attacks now." Castiel said with a pointed look.

"Don't tell me what to do, un." Deidara said, "I will stop making my art when I feel like it."

With that, another explosion went off, causing yet another crazed smile to grace Deidara's face. At this moment, Castiel could see the source of what sculpted the explosive sculptures: the mouths that were present on each palm, acting autonomously most of the time, occasionally flickering creepy smiles and frowns when their tongues weren't sticking out or chewing clay.

Before another round of explosives could be deployed, Castiel teleported right behind Deidara, startling him a bit; an effect that Castiel had on everyone due to not understanding the human concept known as personal space. Before Deidara could retaliate, he found himself unable to move. He could twitch and struggle, but he just could not remove the invisible force that prevented him from moving. It was as if someone had placed him in an invisible binding jutsu. But in this case, it was Castiel's telekinetic powers being used yet again.

"What the heck is this, un?!" Deidara yelled as he began checking for genjutsu via contracting his left eye. "This isn't a genjutsu at all!"

Castiel approached the blonde bomber, a slight bit of irritation present on his face. Deidara began to feel very uncomfortable as Castiel once again invaded his personal space. Albeit, he could not do anything while immobilized by the strong grip Castiel had over him.

"I said: cease your attacks." Castiel said in an even lower, gravelly voice.

The angel reached out his right hand and pressed his thumb against Deidara's forehead (moving his forehead protector up in the process). Deidara continued to struggle to get free just to find everything he did to be futile. He then screamed out in pain as Castiel then used his grace on him.

.

A few miles away, the original Ino-Shika-Cho team perked up at the sound of screaming. With nothing to lose, they raced in that direction, hoping that some sign of their target was present there. Along the way, Shikaku spoke up.

"So what is the plan of action? How do we assure that he will talk instead of attack? We have to be armed at a moment's notice."

"I say we just play this out by ear since we have to be armed," Inoichi replied, "But let's just approach as calmly as possible. The more we seem tense, the more likely we will be drawn into a battle by him."

"Uh, guys, look." Choza pointed out, seeing something rather surprising up ahead.

"What?" Inoichi asked, catching a glimpse of what Choza saw.

With that, the three raced towards what Choza spotted. Once they got there, they saw a sight that was hardly believable. Even after witnessing something similar in Izumo's thoughts, it still caught Inoichi off a bit. It was another unconscious Akatsuki Member solely judging by the robes and the face of the man, Deidara, if the book was correct, was plastered in the Akatsuki section of the Bingo Book.

Inoichi cautiously approached the body of Deidara and began examining it. There was a slow heart beat and the steady breathing of someone who was in deep slumber. He then checked the body for injuries, hoping to confirm that this was the work of Castiel. In the end, the lack of a chakra signature (aside from the one emanating from the Akatsuki Member) confirmed it was indeed the work of the trench coated man.

"He is long gone now." Inoichi stated and began to lift up the unconscious body. "Let's take this man back to the village. If we are lucky, he will wake up and tell us everything he knows."

Agreeing with Inoichi, Shikaku and Choza left with the sleeping body.

.

Hidan had woken up two days into the sealing process of the three tails and would not shut up about how he got his butt handed to him by "some nobody angel". Kakuzu had told him to shut up many times and "remind" him how angels weren't real and it was absurd how something like them could even exist. Hidan got pretty offended how the money loving Kakuzu once more failed to recognize such a divine messenger and threatened to sacrifice him. In the end, the threat obviously failed when Kakuzu swiped his scythe and chopped his head off. When Pein entered the picture, asking for information, all Hidan could pretty much tell him was that "the mother****er's got big ass wings and one hell of a knock out jutsu that requires no hand signs, and I'm gonna try to sacrifice him for what he did to me".

Tobi entered the Akatsuki Hideout, walking past a recently awakened Hidan. The albino Akatsuki Member glanced up from sharpening his scythe to look at the newbie, noticing something off about the normally cheerful, childish man.

"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?" Hidan asked with a nasty smirk. "Did you mistake a skunk for a cat and get p*ssed on by it?"

Tobi said nothing as he continued walking. An air of doom and darkness surrounded him. No sign of cheerfulness was present. It was as if someone showed him one of the darkest things ever devised by an absolutely twisted mind and then was forced by the creator of said evil to live through it. It was then and there that Hidan, and everyone else in the area, realized that Tobi had died and Madara had taken his place.


	3. Unknown

Binas: Just for a side note, the flowers chosen for the get well gift are going by their Japanese names to point out what meanings that should be looked at. After all, some flowers do have different meanings in different cultures. Like how yellow roses AKA Kiiroibara mean friendship in Western Culture, yet mean jealousy in Japanese Culture. So yeah, there's the heads up.

Sorry for any OCCness, I am featuring more characters in this chapter and I have never really written them before, outside of some unpublished works that are sitting on my computer doing nothing. If anyone can help with that, please let me know and I will try to fix it in later chapters as what goes on is very crucial for the plot.

Also, 15Stepsdown I hope you get better soon. I wish you a speedy recovery.

Reviews:

Guest Chapter 2; July 17th, 2016: Well that's why I put it there aside from being a symbol of power differences. You'll see in this chapter what happens with Tobi/Madara and Deidara… It will be quite the plot twist AND a mind screw. Not only that, it will raise the stakes even further.

Guest Chapter 1; July 17th, 2016: Sass is what I do best. It is one of my staples aside from slap stick and awkward/bizarre/outlandish scenarios.

Tutu and Parodox009: Glad you like the story so far. And I will do my best.

MsMJ: Glad to see you around. :D I wasn't expecting the popularity rise like I said. Normally my stories are left to the wayside in favor for… Other things… Yeah, I can't put that tactfully. I swear I am the least tactful person on Earth. And that's my style. I like the action to start right away. No pointless filler. Even my filler has purpose in terms of developing characters and providing perspectives. My knowledge on Naruto pretty much is very limited from the Pain Arc onward aside from Chakra originating from the Shinju Tree and Kaguya eating said tree's forbidden fruit (remind you of something) and Sasuke getting the Rinnegan in one of his eyes (which he does not deserve after frustrating me with some very, very poor choices that even DEAN wouldn't make like going willing to a pedophile for power). I will continue as much as I can. Not sure how far I can continue until my ADHD kicks in and drags me into something else that catches my Autism's attention. Yes, I personified them, just like how Inside Out personified emotions.

Interviner: Yup and the heat will continue to rise. Manipulation will only get one so far and it does not always work on an angel who is programmed to protect. In this chapter, things will be solidified. Also, if what happens late in the chapter is anything to go by, I think you can easily guess how Inoichi will react. But at the same time, I think only humans and demons like Crowley were unable to view an angel's true form. So I am unsure what would happen if a mass of sapient energy in the form of an animal were to lay eyes on Cass's true form. Though, Kurama is only truly terrified of Madara if I remember correctly.

.

.

Shikamaru Nara laid on the grassy plains of his clan's forest, watching the clouds roll along above the canopy made of tree leaves. The deer rustled the nearby grass and bushes as the little ones played and the older, male ones wrestled for dominance and mates. It was very relaxing to say the least. It gave the young Nara enough peace to reflect on everything that had happened during the week.

First was the attempt to apprehend the two Akatsuki Members, Hidan and Kakuzu, for entering the Land of Fire and murdering almost everyone in the temple just for a bounty. It almost led to the death Asuma, which was something that devastated Shikamaru. As much as he wanted to go out and do something to get revenge for Hidan nearly taking Asuma's life, there was nothing he could do. The one who intervened and saved his sensei left Hidan's status very ambiguous. Was he still alive? Was he dead? Had he suddenly had his memories erased? At this point, with all the powerful things that Castiel did, it would not surprise him if he left the man in eternal sleep. However, he had shown no intentions of killing Hidan.

In the end, Shikamaru was just glad to still have his sensei, cigarettes and all, despite how the smoke made his eyes water and the scent was a bit gross. He let his mind wander back to the moment his sensei woke up approximately three and a half days after he was brought back unconscious.

.

 _Flashback… Hospital Room…_

.

The spiky ponytail wearing Nara set down a banquet that was handcrafted by Ino. The flowers that composed the main part were buruberu, white tsubaki, purplish-blue ayame, and hinagiku. The wrapping for the banquet was white with a green band decorated in kuroba.

It had been a couple of days since he was admitted into the hospital, yet he showed no signs of waking up and that troubled Shikamaru. What if Asuma was in an eternal dream state, a vegetable at worst, doomed to never walk among the living? Dark thoughts and questions like that buzzed in the young genius's mind.

"I'm not sure if you can hear me, but, uh," Shikamaru said, feeling a bit weirded out, "Please wake up soon."

Shikamaru's face contorted into a cringe, obviously not liking how his words just came out. It just sounded way too cheesy and silly. Childish, even.

"Okay, that sounded a lot better in my head." Shikamaru verbally admitted before sighing. "This is so troublesome…"

"Maybe it wouldn't be if you didn't think about it so much." A familiar voice chuckled.

Shikamaru perked up. Asuma was laying there, looking a bit drowsy with a small smile on his visage, clearly showing that he heard his student's attempt at talking to an unconscious person.

"Asuma…"

"Hey there. Looks like I was out for quite a while."

"About three days."

"Looks like we were pretty lucky that that guy showed up when he did, huh?"

Shikamaru couldn't agree more. But still, everything from that day haunted him. He couldn't even go to sleep without picturing the Homicidal Maniac's face. His heart burned with the urge to do something that would put the asshole in his place.

"You're thinking about Hidan, aren't you?"

"He nearly killed you, Asuma!" Shikamaru said, trying to keep his emotions in check. "And I know he wouldn't be just satisfied with our team. He could harm many more innocent people on top of the others he has claimed. I have to do something about it."

"Shikamaru, it is normal to feel the need to take revenge, but at this point there is nothing anyone can do." Asuma consulted. "From what I do remember, he was knocked out and we won't be able to find him for the time being, so there is no point in plotting to kill him at this time."

"Are you saying we just let him go free?!"

"No, I am saying is that we wait and better ourselves." Asuma corrected. "When he shows up again, we will know how to deal with him. His partner is a bit iffy, but with a mind like yours, there is no doubt that we will overcome the obstacles."

Shikamaru thought on those words. It was very true. They had no idea of the psycho's current location and status. And in a way, it gave them indefinite time to prepare for their next encounter, to develop strategies that would hinder the immortal killer or better, kill him off for good. And as much as he wasn't very fond of the idea, there were things that this generation's Ino-Shika-Cho trio needed to work on. In Shikamaru's case, it was his stamina, which was pretty lacking and was a liability. For Choji, it was his self-confidence. And for Ino, she had to refine the skills she had and make them even better than they already were. As much as Choji would most likely want to gorge himself at the BBQ, Ino doing whatever troublesome women like her did, and Shikamaru playing Shogi and watching clouds, there was no chance, even if hell froze over, that they would be able to get out of the mess that they fell in. They had to improve, they had to get better as a team, together as friends.

.

 _End of Flashback… Interrogation and Torture Facility…_

.

"Okay, put him over here."

Inoichi placed Deidara's body in the wooden chair and laced straps onto his wrists and ankles, which had chakra suppression seals etched into them. As extra precaution to go along with removing any and all weapons (including his clay), they sewed the extra two visible mouths shut as they found he had a third one on his chest that was already sewed. They didn't need him escaping and demolishing the Hidden Leaf like he demolished the Hidden Stone with his kekkei genkai: Explosion Style.

Ibiki Morino, the head of the Hidden Leaf Village Interrogation and Torture Force, looked down at his new interrogee, a bit surprised that he was looking at the sleeping form of an Akatsuki Member.

"Well this isn't a sight that you see every day." Ibiki stated with a bit of a sadistic smirk. "An S-Rank criminal getting captured. This should be fun."

"So what extraction method will we be using?" Inoichi asked.

"Well, since we are a bit lucky," Ibiki began, his smile not leaving his face, "I think a little mind probing won't hurt our guest all too much."

Inoichi stepped forth, and used the same jutsu he used on Izumo to delve into the terrorist bomber's mind. What he found was absolutely shocking. His mind had been scrubbed clean of almost everything, but his name, basic likes (sculpting which was rather expected and a dish called bakudon), basic dislikes (rice pilaf and people who are either obnoxious or those who have no appreciation for the beauty of the art he makes), how to use his chakra and jutsu, and base personality (hot temper, passionate about art, etc.). Inoichi quickly drew away with urgency twinkling in his eyes.

"Ibiki, we have a problem."

Ibiki quirked an eyebrow at that statement. "What kind of problem?"

"Looks like my team's original target, Castiel, wiped his memories. Not even I am able to retrieve them with my jutsu."

With that said, things had become a whole lot more difficult. Not only had they lost the chance of gaining more information on the mysterious Castiel, they lost the bonus of gaining new information on the Akatsuki, which still held onto its major threat status due to them kidnapping Jinchuriki like Naruto and Gaara (and at this time, they had no clue why they wanted to capture them, but from what they knew, it couldn't be good).

"Alert the Hokage of this development." Ibiki ordered a random bystander, "This has become a very serious matter and requires her attention immediately."

"Yes, sir." The bystander said and rushed off.

.

Tsunade couldn't believe what she was being told. What had been considered icing on the cake (without the cake) turned out to be all but real. It really made her frustrated. The only possible good that could come out of this was one less Akatsuki Member to worry about since they could now dictate the fate of the one they held and there was very little chance of him rushing off due to the blank slate he had become.

On another note, the whole situation surrounding Castiel had become more serious than what it was originally, which wasn't much. Tsunade had no idea what to think about the cards that have been dealt to her and her village. First of all, there was the fact he was pretty much aimlessly wandering off where the previous generation Ino-Shika-Cho team found Deidara and the numerous sightings in various poverty stricken villages was anything to go by. With his power set, he could theoretically deal massive damage to the shinobi nations and all of its inhabitants. Second, was the fact that the Akatsuki had taken interest in him. Anything involving that infamous group of S-Class criminals always went downhill like the time when they kidnapped the Kazekage, Gaara. The teenage leader of the Hidden Sand Village had died in their grimy hands and was brought back thanks to Chiyo's life giving jutsu that required her to sacrifice her own life.

' _What are we going to do?_ ' Tsunade thought, ' _Without any information that is actually useful, we are pretty much sitting ducks. I just wish that somebody will tell me what is needed in so I can protect this village._ '

Tsunade sighed and took a swig of her sake. This situation was giving her a massive headache and it had yet to become a report for filing. She could only imagine how badly this will hurt her brain later.

"Why can't this be any simpler?" Tsunade groaned.

.

"Another one of us has gone Nine Tails!"

"Quick!"

Without any time spared, one of Naruto's two hundred shadow clones had been pinned to the ground by Yamato's Wood Style: Foo Dog Heads, which caused a pillar of wood to do the pinning part thanks to the kanji for the word "Sit" on Yamato's hand and the necklace that Naruto had been given to him by Tsunade three years ago in a gambling that involved him learning the rasengan.

Once the clone had been pinned, it went out with a " _poof_ ", sending whatever it could remember before losing himself to the Nine Tailed Fox's recent attempt in trying to escape the seal back to the original Naruto.

Yamato sweated as he released his jutsu for the moment. That had to have been the fifteenth clone (maybe more) he had to suppress. He was nearing the point of collapsing due to the amount of chakra he had expended each time.

"Naruto, let's stop for today." Kakashi, who had gotten out of the hospital around the time Team Seven had returned, said as he read through his _adult_ romance novel called " _Make Out Tactics_ " (which was made by Jiraiya, the one and only super pervert). "I don't think Yamato can handle another shadow clone losing control."

"Aw come on!" Naruto said as his clone yelled in protest. "We're getting so close to combining my Wind Style with the rasengan! I know I can do it!"

"I'm sure you can," Kakashi stated, not looking up from his book at all, "But that progress could be lost if something happens, like say, you pass out for a week."

"You know that it will take more than this to make me pass out!"

"Take a break for a while and at least give Yamato a chance to rest. We can't afford to have him being in the hospital due to chakra exhaustion either."

Naruto frowned as he dispelled his shadow clones, gaining a headache from the onrush of hundreds of memories bombarding him all at once. With that, he went off with a chakra enhanced leap, leaving both Yamato and Kakashi behind in the training area. Yamato fell over, thoroughly exhausted, leaving Kakashi alone with his dirty book.

' _He'll get over it…_ ' Kakashi sighed in his head. ' _In a few hours, he will be asking if Yamato's done resting. Now where, was I...? Oh… Heehee…_ ' Kakashi had gained a slight nosebleed right under his mask.

.

Castiel kept vigilance of his surroundings. Ever since those two men dressed in black robes with red clouds ambushed him, he could not afford drawing more attention than he already acquired. Sure he still healed those in need and visited several small villages like Uree-mura from time to time, but he still kept himself as invisible as a misplaced angel could be.

' _The inhabitants here are starting to come after me, too._ ' Castiel thought. ' _At least I can deal with them temporarily, but it won't be before long someone else tries to capture me._ '

Castiel couldn't help but snort a tiny bit. From what he had seen and heard others think, the entire population, as he knew, knew absolutely nothing about angels, demons, and the likes. In some ways that was good, but he couldn't help but be slightly offended that they forgot what angels were. Then again, he wasn't sure if this was more offensive than the silly depictions on the First Earth of his kind.

However, he did learn that there were many powerful things that did perk a bit of interest. First were the Jinchuriki, which appeared to be humans that had been sacrificed to become vessels of demonic energy (which had taken shapes of animals and animal hybrids) with full control until something provokes the energy within. It was in fact, actually kind of practical yet kinda not considering how much damage the energy does on their psyche and how they are treated by society.

Second was the nearly extinct Sharingan, a "dojutsu" as they called it, that caused the wielder's irises to turn red with between one to three tomoe in each eye. From what he gathered, the eye could copy movements, see masses of energy, and learn any technique with one look. Castiel would have to note to warn anyone with this ability not to try to look at his Grace with those eyes. Blindness or death would be imminent if they did.

Third was the Byakugan, another dojutsu, which caused babies to be born with pupil-less pale grayish-white irises. This differed through the fact it could see energy pathways, see a near 360 degrees around the wielder, and see through objects not shrouded by an illusion or a seal. Again, he was definitely going to warn the wielders not to try to look at his Grace.

' _How many eye related powers do these humans have?_ ' Castiel thought. ' _Hopefully no other mutations bestow abilities that could potentially cause them harm from merely looking at me._ '

Suddenly, Castiel sensed another presence. One all too familiar as he had thrown the moron. However, at the same time, he could feel that one of the masks disappeared, leaving arguably only one.

"Don't try hiding yourself," Castiel began, "I know you are there."

The sound of clapping rang through the area as Tobi, who was now going by Madara, stepped out of the shadows.

"Your skills impress me, Castiel." Madara complimented.

"Flattering me won't do you any good." Castiel stated very flatly.

"True, but that fact is still worth noting for the future." Madara leaned against a dead tree that was littered in cuts and burns. "Now tell me, why have you been interfering with the Akatsuki?"

"I have no plans to interfere with anything." Castiel pointed out. "I only stopped one person in order to protect a child from a barbaric slaughtering. You and Deidara merely initiated a fight with me."

Even though he could not see it, Castiel knew Madara had raised an eyebrow. He probably did not expect him to say anything among those lines at all. That proved that this Madara was assuming things about him. He just hoped he didn't assume anything ridiculous like he would have when under his Tobi persona.

"Interesting." Madara said. "Now tell me, you said you were trying to protect a child. Why were you so interested in his survival?"

"He was a child; and children have the right to live their lives without fearing Death's touch. Hidan was going to take that away from him."

"How incredibly naïve you are to say that. Death cannot be stopped; it is a part of an endless cycle that will never cease."

"And I know that, but children still should not know what it feels like to fear Death."

"In a way, that is very true, but in this case, even the babies know the feeling what death being near is like. However, I do plan to rectify it and make that a thing of the past."

"What do you mean?" Castiel was starting to not like where this conversation was going.

"I have a weapon in the process of being completed. It will make primitive emotions like fear a thing of the past. It will be the answer to a solvable portion of death: war. Without war, death won't be as common as everyone will be too happy in their own worlds to even care about their fears of death, jealousy, corruption, and greed."

During this long winded and boring monologue, Castiel got a clear read of what details were involved thanks to his angelic telepathy. Madara was planning to trap everyone in a dream world by using the tailed beasts to summon a giant statue and fuse with it so he could cast an illusion on the moon. It was an insane plan. An insane plan that removed something that was very special and unique to every single human in existence: free will. Even Castiel himself couldn't experience the full potential of this power that all humans held.

Filled with anger, Castiel pinned Madara to a tree with his telekinesis and got right in his face.

"Don't you dare go through with that plan." Castiel hissed.

"And let everyone suffer from their fears?" Madara asked. "How heartless could you be? Humanity is crying from the pain of fear and war! I want to put an end to it so no one has to feel sad, angry, or hate ever again!"

"At the cost of losing free will?" Castiel retorted. "You are the heartless one for plotting at removing it! My Father gave it you as a gift and you're willing to throw it away!"

Time froze around the two. Castiel was righteously furious, a very, very rare sight for someone who struggles with human emotions. Madara breathed heavily as his ears rang a bit. In the moment that the angel in front of him snapped, he felt an incomprehensible power that overwhelmed his own wash over him, causing his ears to pop and a wave of dizziness took over. Despite the dizziness, he could make out a pair of translucent wings emerging behind Castiel. At that moment, he realized what he had just come into contact with: someone who was _definitely_ not to be angered, not matter what.

"They will retain their free will, I assure you that they will." Madara coughed.

"But that free will wouldn't be real." Castiel replied, still frowning. "It would only be within a world you control, thus meaning you control their will, not themselves."

Madara didn't reply. Either he was having trouble breathing, or he had nothing to defend himself with. Thinking it was the former, Castiel began to remove his telepathic grip when Madara began screaming. Then it dawned Castiel, he had been distracted by Madara's little plan to check if he held one of those dojutsu under his mask. Castiel made the mask combust to reveal a heavily scarred face with only one eye. An eye that was bleeding and now blind.

"That wasn't a very smart move, Madara." Castiel stated. "Just like I suspected, your Sharingan can view a glimpse of my true form. Humans cannot see it without suffering the consequences you are experiencing or worse."

"What do you mean worse?" Madara asked as he clutched his eye, trying to stop the bleeding.

"You could have died." Castiel replied with little emotion.

"How can you say that so nonchalantly?!"

"My people skills are rusty."

Madara winced, not believing what he was hearing at all. He reached his free hand out, trying to sense where he was with his sense of touch instead of sight. It proved as a big challenge as all he felt was the ground around him.

"No, no, NO!" Madara muttered to himself in horror. "This can't be happening!"

And with that one little phrase and string of fragments, the mask of Madara fell, leaving one final mask: the mask of nothing. Because this was the man's last mask, Castiel could be for certain as to who this man truly was: Obito Uchiha, an orphan who was adopted by two others in his family. He was tardy for everything due to his kind heart. He was willing to help anyone who needed it, even when his own well being was on the line and held a strong moral compass (which was now broken). Obito was also the one who gave up his left eye to someone who he once considered a friend when he thought he was going to die from being crushed by a massive boulder only to be rescued by the real Madara Uchiha.

Obito kept on stressing on all of the mistakes that had piled up in this one encounter. This included ticking off what he assumed was a really super powerful shinobi, becoming blind from trying to put the same guy in a genjutsu so he could control him, and a long list of other things he had probably missed. All in all, this was the one moment where he failed to act like Madara and traits of his old, dead, original personality leaked through the cracks.

Castiel looked down at the sobbing mess of a man that was sitting against the tree, unable to see the world around him. He knew that even if he wasn't an angel, he would still be able to tell that Obito heavily relied on his one remaining eye.

As Obito kept going on with yet another long winded amount of dialogue, Castiel began studying the man's mind some more and found why the Uchiha was so focused on this plan despite the numerous times he had told him that the plan was abysmal. The girl that Obito was talking about had been killed by his best friend, Kakashi, during an encounter with Hidden Mist ninjas. In Obito's memory, it appeared that Rin Nohara was just standing there, making it look like it was intentional despite the horrified look on Kakashi's face. Castiel would have tried to restore the memory (he knew it had been altered), but he had no firm knowledge of what had happened due to not having been present at the time.

"-Are you even listening to me?!" Obito called out, snapping Castiel out of his little "mind reading" session.

"Sorry," Castiel began. "I was reading your memories."

"What?!" Obito exclaimed, feeling very uncomfortable and a bit violated. "That's really rude!"

"I was not aware that it was." Castiel stated calmly. "I figured that it would be more informative as to why you are so insistent on going through with that idiotic plan."

Obito groaned as he face palmed. This guy was more than just "rusty", he was cringe worthily bad at interacting with others.

"I now know why exactly." Castiel continued. "You miss your crush, Rin Nohara."

"What gave that away?" Obito sarcastically asked with a hint of bitterness. "My long monologue that you didn't bother listening to?"

"No." Castiel said. "I paid no attention to it because it was not insightful. I found out by reading your mind."

"You're an ass, you know that?" Obito asked flatly.

"I fail to understand why you think name calling will garner anything of value."

Obito sighed and said, "You know what, I'm out of here."

Obito felt the ground around him with his foot and began to steadily try to find his way around. He so did not want to deal with this anymore. He was now blind thanks to Castiel and needed to find a suitable replacement eye, one preferably with the Mangekyo Sharingan, a rare form of the Sharingan that was assumingly formed when one someone close (i.e. a friend or family member) dies right in front of you. He didn't want to deal with the hassle of putting oneself into a genjutsu. It was after all a very tedious procedure that could be difficult to not only begin, but to end. The Eye of the Moon Plan must go on, regardless of this massive set back.

Obito nearly tripped over a rock, but managed to catch himself with what little balance he had in that moment. Castiel watched as he stumbled about, not even batting an eye at how ridiculous he looked tripping on small rocks and roots. Obviously there was no stopping the man from doing whatever he could within his power to launch his plan, even if it meant killing himself. It was really pathetic to say at the least.

"Stop, Obito."

"Why, so you can gloat on how you barely lifted a finger when you defeated me?" Obito snarked. "You do realize that will do you no good."

"You would do anything to go through with that poorly thought out plan?"

Obito rolled his blind eye, getting kind of tired of Castiel calling the Eye of the Moon Plan stupid and ill formed. It was rather insulting considering it was devised by the _real_ Madara Uchiha and was the best shot he had at making the world a better place and reuniting with Rin.

"Yes, and even me being blind won't stop me from doing what it takes to go through with it." Obito stated with determination. "I will even give up my life to do it, after all, that's what heroes do."

Castiel tilted his head in a puppy dog fashion, confused greatly by the man's logic. A plan that involved removing free will to save the world from the evils of war and fear being hailed as heroic. There was no logic to be found from an angel's point of view. It was just messed up. Something that could have been fixed if a new garrison had been placed to protect this Earth. Sure, it would still have the unfortunate things like fear and war, but there would have been something that Castiel had only seen once: hope and faith. It was the farmer that found him who displayed a bit of it, but in the grand scheme of things, he was smaller than a percentage of the population. This world had lost hope and faith and it was jarring.

"Even if I could bring Rin back to life?"

Obito scoffed as he crossed his arms. There was only one way he knew that people could be brought back to life, and it was not pretty (mainly for the human sacrifice required). It was called Edo Tensei AKA Summoning Jutsu: Reanimation, basically a zombie reincarnation jutsu that came in two forms: partial free will and no free will, both displaying what Castiel was against.

' _If he does what I think he is going to do, then he is a massive hypocrite…_ '

"I might think about it. How do you plan on doing it?" Obito asked before following up with the sarcastic add on of "Need me to bring you a human sacrifice? I've got plenty."

"I only need her remains." Castiel replied flatly, missing the sarcasm completely.

Obito was taken back by that. A technique that resurrected a person with only their remains was unheard of. Sure, there was that one Rinnegan ability that allowed the user to sacrifice themselves to bring back life to an indefinite amount of bodies, but those bodies were still fully intact. Rin was practically bones right now. Shivers went down his at the images that appeared in his head.

"Please tell me nothing creepy or weird will happen." Obito said.

"I assure you, she will not be a walking skeleton." Castiel said, earning a pointed look from Obito. "Oh, Sorry."

"I know where she is buried, but I kind of need to be able to see to find the location." Obito stated.

Obito then felt Castiel's hand touch his forehead, followed by a burst of warmth in his face, causing him to close his one eye. A few moments later he stopped and looked around, amazed by the clarity that his eyes had not had in a very long time. What surprised him was that he had his left eye back. His hand went to it, touching it gently and realizing the massive scare was also gone, unable to believe what was going after all that had happened so far.

Once the formerly scar-faced Uchiha was done being mesmerized by the latest turn of events, he led Castiel where he had buried Rin. It only took about one hour to reach the location. Obito made a pair of shovels with his Wood Style and handed one to the angel. With that they began digging. After approximately twenty minutes of fast paced digging, Rin's bones were revealed. Obito gave a sad look as the moment where she died replayed in his mind. It was truly depressing. Despite this, he still removed every single bone he could find and placed them in roughly the same position they would be if she were lying down.

"I don't expect you to change your mind about that plan of yours," Castiel began as he kneeled next to Rin's bones, "But please do try to consider it."

Castiel placed a hand on Rin's skull and a white light emitted all around the skeleton. Obito squinted his eyes as he watched in awe. He witnessed muscles and veins rebuilding themselves, organs reforming, skin migrating over the reconstructed tissues, and brown hair growing back to its former length. What did not come back were her clothes. Needless to say, Castiel did lie about nothing weird happening. Then again, with how socially inept he is, it might have been normal for someone to run around naked to him. Without even needing to think, Obito quickly took off his Akatsuki cloak and laid it on top of Rin's nude torso with a red tint spreading across his cheeks.

While Obito was distracted by the revival of his late crush, he failed to notice the vegetation dying all around Rin. Trees began to rot, the grass browned and decayed, and the weeds and flowers rapidly withered to the point it was hard to tell what they once were.

After what had seemed forever, the light died down and Castiel got up and stepped away. Obito heard a moan come from Rin's mouth, causing his heart to skip a beat. Her eyes then opened to reveal the same brown eyes that he grew up knowing. There were no black or gray sclera, just pearly white, signifying that Edo Tensei had not been used. This was so far; the Rin he knew.

"Wh-where am I?"


	4. Threshold

Binas: Due to being a Christian I felt very awkward and uncomfortable writing Pein in this chapter. You can EASILY guess why. It was already uncomfortable writing references to Supernatural's portrayal of God. So yeah, please excuse the clunky writing in those areas… I have to keep reminding myself various things just to get my fingers to type what is needed…

Reviews:

Gurat (guest, chapter 3, July 21st): Cass is still pretty powerful, even without the souls. And he is a Seraph. Don't worry, he can still get his butt kicked by an archangel and those who know what they are doing. He could resurrect Rin because his powers are embedded in him instead of him having to use the power of Heaven. Also, he does have the angel tablet, which does give more power to the angel who has it. However, he does not realize this, so he is not noticing this or even aware some of the tablet's power is leaking into him.

Momo (guest, chapter 3, July 23rd): I know. It just didn't really exist until me (there was one, but it just wasn't very memorable to me due to how bland it was and the poor grammar and shortness). The closest we ever got were Sam, Dean, and Crowley going there and a few cringe worthy ship fics (mostly poor grammar and descriptions that fail to perk my curiosity) that involve the poor angel. Yeah, I don't ship Castiel with anyone. He did say he was pretty much asexual in the season seven premier and I want to respect that.

Guest (Chapter 3, July 21st): Wait and see. We all know Obito, he's stubborn on his plan.

Paradox009: Thanks. :)

Interviner: You'll have to wait and see… ;)

.

.

Obito could not believe what was happening before his eyes. Rin, for the first time since her death, was sitting up and talking. He had missed hearing her voice. He had missed pretty much everything about her. Now, those feelings were put to rest while an old one came into fruition: protecting her.

"Obito!" Rin called out as she leaped up to hug him. "How are you here? We thought you died!"

"Well, I guess you thought wrong." Obito shrugged. "Come on, we have a lot of catching up to do."

As Obito began to help Rin up, she began to panic.

"Wait! We can't go back to the village! The shinobi of the Hidden Mist have planted a monster inside me and want to unleash it there!"

"Rin, listen to me." Obito said, lightly grasping Rin's wrists. "You were dead for quite a while; so whatever those jerks sealed inside of you is no longer there."

"If I was dead, then how did you bring me back?" Rin asked, feeling a small wave of relief.

"I didn't do that." Obito said. "An anomaly of a person actually did it. Speaking of which, Castiel, I want you to- Huh?"

Obito looked around. The angel he was looking for was nowhere to be found for he had long vanished. Rin gave a puzzled look at Obito, not knowing who her former teammate was about to mention. This was mainly due to the fact that Castiel left the moment he had finished reviving Rin.

"Castiel, you big winged ass." Obito muttered under his breath.

.

The moment that Deidara had awoken caused waves of confusion and many villagers thinking he could automatically start demolishing the entire village. Those fears were proven false on the weird looks he gave to everyone around him when anyone showed any form of fear around him.

Many of the higher ups like Tsunade and the pig headed village council were very reluctant to even let him roam the city unsupervised. However, after tests conducted by Inoichi on the likelihood of him ever remembering that he was a criminal who bombed people and villages left and right without considering rank, wealth, or nationality, it became very apparent those memories were not just sealed away by an unbreakable jutsu that was near impossible to detect. They legitimately were removed without a trace left, thus giving some peace of mind to everyone. In the end, only Tsunade was the one willing to let him stay as a resident until the Hidden Stone decided on whether or not they would want to take him back.

'What is it with these people?' Deidara thought as he continued to work on a normal, non-explosive sculpture of a canary in the small workshop that Tsunade let him have as a way to make an income. 'Do they realize that just glaring at me won't make them as artistic at all?'

"Hey, if you are done being jealous, then do something at least productive, un." Deidara called out in the most nonchalant way he possibly could.

"Why would we be jealous of someone like YOU?" One villager retorted.

"Oh, I don't know…" Deidara began, with a smirk growing on his face. "Artistic vision, which is something you all lack, un?"

That comment infuriated/offended pretty much everyone within hearing range. Many villagers booed as they left, muttering profanities and curses towards the blonde. He swore he heard a "go screw yourself, asshole" from one of the drunken visitors in his workshop and a child flipping him off. Deidara gave one of his own to the child with his never fading smirk still present. Only this time, he let his tongue poke out a bit, making him appear more or less his age (which was nineteen) rather than the somewhat adult image he had held up. Thankfully, none of the parents nearby caught this little brief, nonverbal banter or there would have been trouble for both of them (the child for being that vulgar and Deidara for encouraging him).

.

Naruto had finally done it. He had managed to add his Wind Chakra to the Rasengan, thus making it complete. It was the same size as his normal Rasengan with proportionally sized blades of wind spiraling constantly around it with ferocity and grace, making it look like a shuriken. 'Rasenshuriken.' It was a sight to behold in its brief moment of existence before the blonde knucklehead dispelled it. One by one, the batch of clones that had helped him also dispelled, leaving the original in the center of the rugged field, sweating from all the hard work.

"Well done Naruto." Kakashi said. "You have finally done it."

"Congratulations." Yamato included.

"This is great!" Naruto shouted with excitement. "Come on! Let's go get some ramen at Ichiraku!"

"Okay." Kakashi said and looked at Yamato. "Yamato can handle the tab, right?"

"Wait, what?" Yamato asked, looking like he just did a spit take.

"Thanks Captain Yamato!" Naruto piped up.

With that Naruto and Kakashi started heading towards the village. Yamato's eye twitched with annoyance, knowing how much ramen Naruto could eat as he had seen it play out right in front of him, up close, numerous times. That and the fact Kakashi always dumped the bill on him was just frustrating.

"Kakashi! Not this again! Why do I have to always pay?"

.

Leaving when he did was for the best. Obito was just too much for him. To go for such an idea to an even greater extent than Michel's zealousness was bound to make anyone a bit uncomfortable, especially when the topic involved removing gifts like free will.

Castiel tapped on the wooden table of the small ramen shop, trying to keep a normal appearance. The less people suspected him, the better. He had no intention in getting too involved before he was done piecing together the history of the forgotten world. There was still much he had no knowledge about, and that included the ones who decimated a good chunk of his siblings years ago.

"Is there anything you would like, sir?"

Castiel looked up at the young lady who was in front of him and shook his head no.

"Oh, Naruto!" the owner said with a large smile. "Is there anything we can get you?"

'Who names their child after food?' Castiel thought with a confused frown.

"Hi!" the obnoxiously bright orange newcomer, Naruto, shouted, "I would like a large bowl of ramen with pork fillets."

Behind Naruto there were two others. One had silvery white hair and the majority of his face covered with a mask and headband, sans his right eye. The other had brown hair and metal frame like thing around his face. They both took a seat right after Naruto and placed their orders too, though not as much as Naruto decided to get.

Castiel stared as he watched Naruto literally inhale his food and automatically ask for another bowl. He checked around, making sure that a particular horseman did not get resurrected. In the end, it was not Famine's doing, but rather just Naruto being Naruto. He resisted the urge to read the minds of Naruto and the two who accompanied him without permission. He didn't want to be rude, but at the same time, he had the feeling that these guys would not just let anyone read their thoughts and memories without hesitation.

"Hey sir, you okay?"

Castiel once more turned towards Naruto, the one who spoke to him.

"I am fine." Castiel said.

"You don't look fine." Naruto replied, "Hey, Teuchi, can you get this guy a bowl of ramen? He doesn't look too good."

"Sure thing." The owner replied.

Castiel was about to decline when he found the bowl of fresh ramen right in front of him. He stared at the bowl of ramen, contemplating on what he should do. As an angel, he did not need substances to sustain himself, but at the same time Naruto had someone make it for him out of concern. It was a thoughtful gift.

"May I have this to go instead?" Castiel asked.

"Absolutely," Teuchi said, "Ayame, can you get a container for this man's meal?"

"Sure, father." Ayame replied and got a container for Castiel's ramen.

With that, Castiel took the ramen and began to leave, just to be called on yet again by Naruto.

"Hey, who are you anyways?" Naruto asked, getting a look from the silvery haired man next to him.

Castiel did not reply, instead he disappeared into the crowd.

.

Sai entered Tsunade's office holding a piece of paper. Tsunade looked up, seeing that the Team Seven's replacement third member had come back from his solo mission. It was a very simple mission: find someone who could remember every small detail of what Castiel looked like so Sai could draw it.

"Lady Fifth, I managed to find someone in Uree-mura with photographic memory." Sai said as he handed the very detailed ink drawings of Castiel to the Fifth Hokage.

Tsunade studied the picture a bit; she had to commit this face and build to memory. After all, someone with the power to subdue someone with a single tap could easily enter the village without causing an uproar. And if what had happened with Deidara was anything to go by, then he could also alter their memories and possibly bend their will towards his own, making him very dangerous.

"Good work, Sai." Tsunade said. "Go and get Deidara and any other artist you can find. I want as many duplicates of these pictures, including the full body one, quickly. We need to be ready to warn the public of a possible threat."

"Deidara, why is he here?" Sai asked, highly confused as to why the one notorious for faking his own death was in the village. "I thought the Akatsuki members were to be interrogated then eliminated."

"Castiel managed to get to Deidara and erased every memory that he deemed threatening like what the Akatsuki is." Tsunade said, "While this does mean we can't get any information out of him, we can however use this to our advantage and have him as one of our own shinobi. Well until Onoki says that he wants the overgrown brat back."

Sai nodded, understanding what was explained. Without a single word, Sai left, taking the drawings with him.

.

Pein scoured through the various faded parchments that were inked with old texts in front of him. Thanks to Hidan's sarcastic recommendation and a combined effort from Itachi and Kisame, they now had information predating the Warring States and the discovery of chakra. While how chakra entered the bodies of modern day ninja and civilians remained unknown and unexplained in the texts' side notes, it did describe various techniques that were long forgotten.

From summoning rituals that would make even the most hardened shinobi shudder in fear to warding sigils that seemed to later evolve into the current day seals. The information was just astounding. To think that the world used to have connections to other worlds that were populated by predominantly humans as well would have originally been absolute nonsense. But what was written before him showed that it was indeed true.

He read further to find the section on monsters that were not made of chakra or by sick experiments. Monsters that would either eat you, devour your brain from a hole in your head, cause psychological torment before eating you, steal your soul and drag it to Hell, copy your entire anatomy just to frame you for an atrocious crime, abduct you, stick you in obnoxious time loops in a sick pocket dimension, and many other things that just sounded twisted and wrong.

'Who would have guessed that there was something that would make a Tailed Beast pale in comparison?' Pein thought, cringing a tiny bit on the section about something called a Leviathan, a really revolting beast that was another "eat you" type of monster, except with some gruesome and disgusting twists that should not have been possible and would ultimately disturb the ones with no emotional control.

Pein then came to the part that intrigued him. It described a winged creature that was described as "holy" and "pure" and were messengers for their unnamed creator that acted as warriors and guardians over everything their Father created (with exceptions like the Leviathans, which was described earlier as something that would "chomp the entire petri dish"). They were sorted into many categories including: cherubim, seraphim, and grigori. But the collective term for them was a word he had heard uttered by Kakuzu: angels. This caused Pein to perk up and study that particular parchment intensely. He had found what he was looking for and what he learned was unbelievable yet at the same time it lined up with everything that Castiel had displayed so far from the accounts of Hidan (who he made sure was telling the truth with the use of his Naraka Path).

'This is not good.' Pein thought. 'If Castiel chooses to go after this organization directly, then there is no doubt that we would ever succeed in our plans for a better world. His power even rivals mine, and this village considers me a god.'

Pein went back into reading any parchment within reach, scanning for anything that could remotely help protect the entire Hidden Rain Village and the Akatsuki by extension from Castiel. What he found were Angel Banishing Sigils and sigils that weakened them slightly. Aside from that, he found something that looked very familiar. In fact, it was a sigil that looked exactly like Hidan's pendent (a triangle in a circle). It was a sigil for summoning a demon. The name of the demon was smudged from the years not being very kind to it. However, one thing he could make out was the words "crossroad demon", a type of demon that dished out deals in exchange for the summoner's soul, and the list of ingredients needed to summon the demon.

'It seems doable, yet very risky.' Pein thought. 'It states that crossroads a demon almost always wants the summoner's soul in exchange for anything and there is a ten year grace period to allow one to indulge in what the deal brings.'

Pein pondered. This was going to be tricky to pull off. If he could convince one of his village's civilians to make the deal, then he just might be able to stay safe from the deal's aftermath to oversee how the world handles being under threat of a weapon that could destroy entire villages with little issue. As far as he knew, that was what the Eye of the Moon plan was for: a massive weapon made from the Nine Tailed Beasts that would scare people from inflicting pain on others by making examples of those who chose to pick a fight with anyone ranging from other nations to the Akatsuki members themselves.

"Lord Pein, are you alright?" Konan asked as she walked into the room.

"I am fine, Konan." Pein said. "Go find a villager who Is willing to sacrifice him or herself to help us deal with the current threat and bring him or her to me."

"As you wish." Konan said and left.

Pein lifted up the hand that held his Akatsuki ring and poured chakra into it as he focused on Madara's ring (unaware that Madara isn't the real Madara).

'Madara, I believe I have found a way to keep Castiel from further interfering in our goals.' Pein telepathically said through the ring.

'Good. No matter what he does for any side, he will always remain a threat to the Akatsuki' "Madara" replied. 'Do whatever is necessary.'

.

Naruto could not believe what was going on at all. When he visited Sai at the new workshop, he saw Deidara and Sai working together on caution posters. He was sure Deidara was dead, but here the bomber was, alive and missing a huge chunk of his memory. He could not even remember the blonde Jinchuriki or the fact he was supposed to capture him so the Akatsuki could take the Nine Tailed Fox! What was more surprising was that the man he ordered ramen for was Castiel. It was just really hard to process.

"He was right next to me the whole time and I didn't even notice…" Naruto muttered.

"I believe no one knew what he looked like aside from those he has healed." Sai said looking up from his work.

"Thank you captain obvious, un." Deidara replied, continuing to paint his portion of posters with a very focused look.

"There's something I don't understand." Naruto started. "Why didn't he wipe my memory or knock me out? Everyone he has done that to were all shinobi, and I'm obviously one!"

"Maybe it is because you look more like a pumpkin than a shinobi." Deidara answered with a crap eating grin.

Naruto groaned at that remark.

"Oh shut it!" Naruto called out. "Orange is an awesome color, and you're just jealous!"

"Why would I be jealous of a pumpkin?" Deidara asked, continuing to smirk, obviously liking the reaction he was getting out of Naruto.

Naruto stormed out of the workshop, leaving Deidara chuckling to himself and Sai just looking a bit lost.

"Is the word pumpkin your term of endearment for Naruto?" Sai asked.

"It was an insult, un." Deidara replied gesturing to the clay that was given back to him. "Endearment is reserved for just my creations."

"Interesting, ball-less." Sai said, giving a fake smile.

Deidara perked up, a large vein appearing on his forehead.

"What was that, un?" Deidara hissed as he clenched his fist.

Sai did not respond. Instead he went back to work, leaving Deidara to seethe at the accidental insult towards his manhood.

.

Pein set down the final candle on the sigil described in the demon summoning ritual. Off to the side stood a man, looking very eager to do something for his village's leader. Pein lead the man to a table with the correct measures of every required ingredient (courtesy of Itachi, who was also present, and his Sharingan). They dumped all the ingredients in and stirred them together with energy literally pouring out of his pores from excitement. Once that was done he was about ready to set in the center of the sigil when Hidan entered the room and gasped.

"Pein!" Hidan shouted. "You have finally converted to Jashinism! I knew you would see the error in your ways!"

"No, I have not converted." Pein told him. "This is a summoning ritual that happens to use the symbol of your religion."

Hidan deflated a bit and crossed his arms, muttering the word "heathen" under his breath. The random man that Konan had found set down the bowl in the middle of the sigil, making sure it was properly lined up. Then came the final step. The man took out a match, lit it and tossed it into the bowl, causing the mixture to nearly explode in front of them. Itachi coughed a bit as the dust from the explosion dispersed, aggravating his already ill lungs.

In front of the sigil stood a man who was nearly the same height as Pein's Deva Path. He had short dark hair, a square face with a very short dark beard and goatee, and a strange (in the eyes of the shinobi in the room) black suit. He stood there, looking a bit surprised.

"Hm, I never expected to be summoned here. Thought this world died a long time ago." The newcomer quipped. "So what deal do you all have for dear old Crowley today, ladies?"

"Yes, I am Fumaru." The one who summoned Crowley replied with a respectful bow, impressing Crowley a bit. "Lord Pein has asked me to make a deal with you regarding the safety of his organization and plans."

"Nice try." Crowley said with amusement. "If "Lord Pein" wants anything from me, he has to make the deal directly, love."

Fumaru stepped away as Pein walked forward, displaying his typical apathetic expression. He looked down on the summoned demon. Getting the hint that the ginger in front of him was Pein, he stuck out his hand, expecting a handshake, which Pein did not return.

"Oh, cultural differences, my bad." Crowley said retracting his hand. "So what kind of deal do you want to make?"

"I need you to keep an angel named Castiel away from the Akatsuki and the Hidden Rain Village." Pein stated causing to blink a bit, clearly surprised by something.

"Can you run by that me again?" Crowley asked.

"I need you to keep an angel named Castiel-" Pein began yet again just to be cut off.

"Yeah, yeah. That's all I need to hear." Crowley said. "I've dealt with that slow boat before. And you are just in luck, I happen to be looking for him."

"Is that so?" Pein asked, narrowing his eyes a bit, getting a suspicious feeling inside.

"Yes, he stole something very valuable from me." Crowley stated. "So here is the deal I am willing to make: I give you the supplies you need to at least harm him; you get me the item he stole."

"What is the item you are looking for?"

"I am looking for a tablet, not just any tablet by the way, the Angel Tablet." Crowley said.

"Why won't you go after him yourself?"

"I am unable to at this time."

"Why not?" Now Pein was getting very suspicious.

"Look, my hands are tied, I got two Winchester brothers trying to get ahold of my demons." Crowley said. "I can't afford them to close the Gates of Hell. It would ruin my business! So are you going to take the deal or not?"

Pein pondered. To his relief, his soul was not involved. On the downside, he would have to send his own organization out after the angel, which was something he was not keen on doing thanks to what happened earlier. For now, he had to do what was best for the Akatsuki.

"I will accept the deal." Pein said. "However, if I find one thing that threatens any member of the Akatsuki, the deal will be terminated and I will not hesitate to teach you the true meaning of pain."

"Oh charming, death threats." Crowley stated sarcastically. "Tell me something I don't know."

"Are you Jashin?" Hidan blurted out.

Crowley looked at Hidan as if he grew a second or third head. Needless to say, he was not amused by the question at all.

"I told you my name was Crowley. Just how stupid are you?"

"Um, hello, the symbol of Jashinism was a part of your friggin' summoning ritual!" Hidan pointed out as he held out his pendant. "You have to be Jashin if that is anything to go by, asshole!"

Crowley looked at the pendant, unsure what to think of this revelation and felt a bit weird.

"My summoning sigil became a part of a cult religion in this world?" Crowley asked. "That is definitely something I did not know. Next time, please consider such statements as rhetorical."

"Yes, Jashin."

"And will you stop calling me that?! Now, just let me give you what you need without any more interruptions. I am on a strict time limit, and lower demons are hard to look after."

So with that, Crowley snapped his fingers, causing a table full of various tools and items to appear. They ranged from iron bottles full of oil to a couple of strange looking weapons.

"Okay let's begin with some Hunting Angels for Dummies, shall we?" Crowley began with a smirk as he held up one of the bottles of oil.


	5. Carry on Wayward Son

Binas: Hello everyone. I warn you this chapter is going to have a few jokes that is not suited for those under fourteen years of age. They are fairly dirty, but unfortunately, both shows have some colors of it depending on the characters *cough* Sai and Crowley *cough*. So yes, viewer discretion is advised.

On a side note, I recommend the song "Carry On Wayward Son" by KANSAS. After all, I listened to that song on loop while writing this chapter and looking up important details.

And another thing, on the 29th I will be going for Wisdom Teeth Extraction, so I will most likely not be writing. If I do, it will probably look like a stoner wrote it. So blame the anesthesia if something really, really weird pops up on my profile or story line up.

Reviews:

Gurat: Well, they are a serious organization for the most part. They would look for a way to at least slow Cass down.

Paradox009: Thank you. And I will do my best.

Interviner: Just wait and see… Trust me, I got to do some things first before I try anything like that.

.

.

The lessons that Crowley provided were interesting to say at the least. It was loaded with several double entendres that it was no longer funny. One happened when Crowley got curious of Hidan's curse jutsu (which the albino brought up when asking if holy oil would work in conjunction with it). Needless to say, it involved Crowley making it look like masturbation, complete with the screams of ecstasy. Hidan got pretty infuriated, feeling like the new King of Hell (a title that Pein learned when he threatened to use the Naraka Path's King of Hell technique on him) was taunting him. That lead to the quip, "Oh, I do this to myself every week when no one else is looking." It was that one phrase that made Pein and Itachi turn around, looking very unimpressed. Itachi had his forehead resting on his forearm against a wall and Pein pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Even if I could, I would not put him under my Tsukuyomi." Itachi muttered.

"Hidan, I think our little friends want us to stop our bloody fun." Crowley said with a twinkle in his eye.

Hidan stopped and processed what Crowley just said to only become utterly disgusted.

"What the hell?!" Hidan shouted in rage and threw his pike on the ground. "No, just no! Don't even refer to my rituals as sex!"

"Sorry, but it was kinda hard to tell with all the sexual moaning on your part. I merely just joined in." Crowley chuckled darkly. "Now where were we?"

With that the lessons resumed. And to the displeasure of Pein and Itachi, they were just as heavily loaded in innuendos as Hidan's little demonstration.

.

Sai stood before the Root's leader, Danzo Shimura, in one of the secret bases. The pale raven head boy passed a copy of the mugshots he had drawn earlier to Danzo. The name "Castiel" was clearly plastered on the pictures to the best of Sai's ability due to some of the sounds not being able to correspond to any of the romaji syllables. Thus Castiel's name had been warped into "Kasutuieru", which sounded nothing like the angel's name, period. Sai explained that little problem to his superior, which made the old man cringe inwardly, knowing that it was going to be difficult translating that across.

Upon reading the information that came with the mugshots, Danzo had to agree with Tsunade, someone he barely ever agreed with. Castiel was a danger. He was a danger to Root and the entire village. Unlike Tsunade, Danzo threw the good deeds out the window. They did not matter to him since those did not involve the Hidden Leaf Village, and he considered them nothing more than facades in order to hide himself from any and all pursuers.

"Sai, I want you to go find this man and take him down." Danzo said. "Assassinate him if possible. I want to know that Castiel will cease to threaten Root and all it stands for."

"Yes, Lord Danzo." Sai replied and left.

.

" _HELP US!_ "

" _WHAT HAPPENED?!_ "

" _SOMEBODY, PLEASE! SAVE US!_ "

" _OUR WINGS ARE DAMAGED!_ "

" _SOMEONE KICKED US OUT OF HEAVEN!_ "

Castiel could barely concentrate with those screams searing in his mind. Something had happened to his siblings to make them all scream and cry at once in such sync. There was a slight burning feel to his wings. They were still usable, thankfully, but they still hurt slightly. What the other angels were saying and the sensations Castiel felt all summed up to one conclusion: someone had made every single angel fall on Earth One. This was only as far as he knew due to the fact that his own wings were still operational and the ones of his distressed brethren were not.

Castiel casted a look on his golden wings that gradually turned white the closer you got to the tips of the feathers. They had minor burns from the spell's effect. Thankfully, the change in frequency from hopping into another universe had spared them from the same mutilation that the others had casted on them.

This was going to be a huge problem for his charges: Sam and Dean Winchester. There was no doubt that the forced possessions that his siblings needed to manifest would cause the infamous brothers more problems than they needed. Last he knew, Meg was in Sam's care and Crowley and Naomi were trying to retrieve the Angel tablet for their own agendas. Due to the spell that casted the angels out of heaven, he doubt his wings would be able to recover quickly if he had to use interdimensional travel again. After all, they were fairly tired after getting him to this planet in the first place. This equated to him not being able to return unless the absolute worst case scenario happened there.

Castiel sighed and buried his face into his hands, knowing how useless he was due to not being able to come to his siblings' and the Winchesters' aid. This was just awful. Even after everything he had done, and how many angels began to look down on him for becoming attached to humans like he did, he would never wish this upon any of them. Heaven was their home, and being banished from it was a pain that no one but Lucifer knew (who nobody, not even Castiel, sympathized with).

' _This is the biggest mess I have ever heard through "angel radio"._ ' Castiel thought. ' _There is nothing I can do to correct it at all._ '

Trying to put the situation aside for now, he got up from the bench he had taken a seat on (which was located on a dirt path outside the Hidden Leaf Village). There were other things Castiel needed to do before trying to solve the Fallen Angel Crisis. One of them was correcting the wrongs that his brothers and sisters made to gain satisfiable penance on Earth Two. He had to do it. It had been put off for far too long and the scars were showing as fresh as the day they were bleeding.

Just as he began to walk away, he found himself wrapped up in snakes made of ink. He turned his head and saw a pale boy in black (accented with red) with a scroll and a paint brush. Seeing as this was another attempt against him, he broke the bonds with his strength, causing them to become no more than puddles of ink mixing with the dirt.

"This is different." The boy muttered.

The raven head, which he learned was Sai from a very brief mind reading, quickly drew another picture and brought it to life. This time it was a lion. The lion charged at Castiel, with its drawn teeth bared. The seraph, knowing it was just an ink drawing, drew his angel blade and stabbed the lion in the center of its back, causing it to implode in a flash of white, pure light energy.

"Cease your attacks on me, right now." Castiel said, obviously tired of having to repeat those words. "I am not here to cause trouble if that is what you assume of me."

"Then what do you want me to assume of you?" Sai asked, a bit confused as Castiel got into a sort of surrender pose.

"I don't want you to assume anything." Castiel replied. "I just need to be alone."

"I am afraid I can't do that." Sai said. "I have orders to eliminate you."

"By who?" Castiel asked. "Is it by the ones sending the men in black coats with red clouds after me?"

"No." Sai said. "I am not with the organization known as the Akatsuki. I am with the Hidden Leaf Village."

"Why do they want me?" Castiel asked.

"They think you are a threat that needs to be killed." Sai stated simply.

Before Sai could produce another living painting, Castiel paralyzed him with his telekinesis. Sai felt an emotion that only Sasuke was able to salvage from his emotionless soul, and that was fear. He tried to move, but found himself unable to fight against the invisible force.

"I don't want to hurt you," Castiel began with a low tone of voice, "So please, leave me be and let me atone my sins."

"Your sins?" Sai asked. "Is that why you are here?"

"Yes." Castiel said with a tiny nod. "I did some things I am not proud of and I want to rectify that in any way I can."

"What did you do?"

"I unleashed the Leviathans in attempt to use the souls of Purgatory to defeat my older brother Raphael." Castiel said. "And I also nearly killed one of my charges due to my sister, Naomi controlling me against my will. I have only recently escaped her grasp. As for the other one, I broke the barrier shielding him from his memories in Hell."

Sai tried to comprehend what Castiel said, but due to the obvious barriers, this was a very visible issue.

"May I show you my memories to make it easier?" Castiel asked. "You don't have to view if you don't want to. They are, not pleasant."

"As a shinobi, I have seen my fair share of things that are not pleasant. That should not be an issue."

Taking those words as confirmation, Castiel placed his fingers on the boy's head and showed him everything. From the rebellion he led against his older, much more powerful brother to the end of the Leviathan disaster (which turned out to be on par with the genjutsu Sasuke put him into) he had brought about in attempts of eliminating Raphael, all for the sake of preventing the end of the world, which was called The Apocalypse, from being restarted. Then the memories of manipulation from Naomi came in, though very fuzzy in many places. But the areas that were crystal clear involved a stone with writing on it and one of Castiel's charges, Dean Winchester, nearly dying at his own hands and it was all because of Naomi. Throughout the entire sequences of memories, Sai learned that Castiel had felt that he needed to do something to protect those he considered his brothers in arms (the Winchesters). It was very similar to his bond with Shin before he died.

Castiel removed his fingers, and released Sai from his telekinesis, sensing this connection. He had been trying to avoid reading minds ever since Obito told him was rude, but old habits die hard, and everyone around here seemed to be hiding necessary information at every turn; information that would make fixing the problems embedded in this world a lot easier.

"Even though I can see your pain and desire to heal it," Sai began. "I must follow through my orders. My superior will not be pleased if I fail."

Castiel looked at the boy. He saw what he had used to be in a sense; someone who followed orders (to an extent before getting stubborn if his numerous "resets" were to go by) and did only just that. At the same time, he could tell the boy had trouble with human emotions just like himself despite being human, an oddity that confused him a bit as he expected humans to all be able to use them properly. It made him feel if he was staring into a mirror. He didn't want to do anything to Sai for this reason as it would feel like he was doing it to himself.

"Would he be alright if you made it look like you captured me?" Castiel asked.

"It depends." Sai said, "Can you be killed?"

"Yes, but I don't stay dead." Castiel said sadly. "My resurrection is starting to seem more like a punishment for trying to take my Father's place."

If Sai could, he would have grimaced at the revelation. Someone to be destined for eternal resurrection in a twist of irony was not very pretty.

"I will just say that I was unable to kill you." Sai said and began to draw another set of snakes, "Now hold still, these need to be snug. NINJA ART: SUPER BEAST SCROLL."

With that, the inky snakes came to life and wrapped themselves around Castiel. This time he did not flinch or struggle. He really didn't like his own plan, but it was necessary to prove that he was not a threat to those who felt threatened by his mere presence.

Sai pulled out a kunai and held it towards his neck and began to walk Castiel back towards the village. Once in the village, people gave cautious and fearful looks their way. Just as Sai was going to have one of the snakes cover Castiel's eyes, a familiar splotch of orange assaulted their vision.

"You caught him, Sai?!" Naruto asked, highly shocked. "How!?"

"He surrendered." Sai said simply, trying to cover up their plan. "I am taking him in right now."

"Can I come with you?" Naruto asked.

This was a problem on Sai's part for one reason; Naruto had very little knowledge on Sai's superior's latest plan. The knucklehead knew Danzo gave him missions as a part of a secret organization known as Root, but that was because he and the other remaining members of Team Seven caught him in the act of trying to assassinate Sasuke, a rogue who was once their friend and teammate. It was a very messy situation that would be quite the novel to put it lightly and possibly more tactfully than what most would say.

"Uh, sure." Sai said before whispering in Castiel's ear. "Slight change of plans."

Sai began leading both Naruto and Castiel to the Hokage Tower. Along the way, many whispers and fearful looks were sent their ways. For once, they weren't directed at Naruto, which relieved him a bit. At the same time, it made him not very impressed deep down since they were aimed at someone else, which was just wrong to begin with.

After getting past the security near the tower, they went inside and travelled up the stairs to where the Hokage's office was. Once being permitted entry from the ANBU Black Ops stationed there, they went in. The woman inside glanced up and looked like if she were having a relapse of a long gone fear.

"Hey, Granny Tsunade!" Naruto said loudly, breaking the silence. "Look, Sai captured Castiel by himself!"

"I can see that…" Tsunade said regaining her composure. "Sai, I did not give you orders to do this, especially solo."

"Sorry, Lady Tsunade." Sai said. "I found him nearby and figured it was best to deal with him before more trouble arises."

Tsunade sighed, knowing very well that was not the case. With her experience, she could easily tell that it had Danzo's stench all over it, but Naruto did not need to know that at the moment. Knowing about Danzo and his involvement would cause more trouble than was needed at a time like this.

"I see." Tsunade began, trying to think of what was best for the moment. "Very well, escort him to our interrogation and torture facility and let Ibiki know that you have apprehended him."

"If I may, I would like to say that is not a good idea." Castiel spoke up, catching Tsunade off guard with how deep his voice sounded.

"Why do you suggest that?" Tsunade asked, narrowing her eyes.

"If you torture me, you run the risk of bushes catching on fire and glass shattering." Castiel warned. "I may not be able to recall the times I have been tortured, but I have seen the effects that a tortured angel has on humans. Some have been severely hurt. I do not wish to harm anyone, especially with something that is ingrained in me."

Tsunade frowned. In terms of information, torture had been very well embedded into the art of retrieving it. This was due to captives being ordered not to reveal sensitive information that could change the tides of things like war and alliances. In this case, either Castiel was telling her the truth, or he was trying to worm his way out of interrogation. No matter what, in her opinion, he was still a possible threat.

"I am afraid I can't let you go until I know you are not a threat to us." Tsunade said. "Take him to Ibiki, and tell him to be careful if what Castiel said is true."

"I am not a threat." Castiel said, refusing to budge when Sai tried to get the seraph to move along.

"Excuse me?" Tsunade asked darkly, not appreciating the attitude Castiel had in his tone of voice.

"I said, I am not a threat." Castiel repeated in a lower tone, "I have no desire to harm or kill anyone."

Tsunade did not reply, having heard that statement many times in her career as a shinobi. In a world where kill or be killed was a rule, she could not afford to risk potential threats like Castiel roaming around and turning on their promises to harm anyone in sight.

Sai continued to try to move Castiel, only just for him to disappear with the sound of flapping wings. Everyone gasped and gave looks of shock.

"Where did he go?" Naruto asked.

"I have no idea, but I want him in custody no matter what!" Tsunade snapped, outraged by the angel's escape.

"Granny Tsunade, what if he was telling the truth that he isn't a threat?" Naruto asked.

"How could he not?" Tsunade asked, still clearly frustrated. "We aren't sure what he is other than the fact he claims to be something that does not exist. And without that knowledge, we don't have any way to protect ourselves in the case if he or someone else like him decides to attack."

"But he said that he doesn't want to harm anyone!" Naruto countered, feeling a bit of anger from where this was going. "He even wanted to protect Ibiki and anyone else around him from what happens when his kind gets tortured despite not knowing him!"

"That doesn't matter, Naruto." Tsunade said. "I know you just want to see the good in him, but in times like these, optimism can get you killed."

"Lady Tsunade, I hate to interrupt," Sai said, "But before I brought him back, he decided to share what seemed to be very personal information with me."

"Eww." Naruto said, getting a very wrong image. "I don't want to hear about the size of his balls or anything like that."

"Actually, it is nothing like that, ball-less." Sai replied, failing to understand what testicles had to do with "very personal information" and making Naruto a bit offended, "He told me why he was here, and showed me it as well. It appears that he had a bond with others like I once had with Shin. He went to extremes to protect them and their world, leading him to become very regretful when those actions hurt the ones he loved. He believes that by being here, he can find penance through doing what can be considered good deeds like healing those who cannot be healed."

"How do you know it was not a trick?" Tsunade asked.

"When I was observing him, his posture and demeanor did not change. He did not do anything that could give the hint that he was lying. In fact, he seemed rather sad and a bit stressed." Sai pointed out. "Also he does not seem like he would be a successful liar, as he told me the truth when he could have lied."

"So you are saying, he is just wanting to be forgiven?" Naruto asked. "What did he exactly do?"

"As he told me, the things that drove him over the edge were accidentally unleashing man eating monsters known as Leviathans when he was attempting to gain enough power to prevent his older brother from trying to end his world. Another was when his own sister took control of him to kill one of his friends."

"That sounds like one messed up family if you ask me…" Naruto trailed off cringing.

Tsunade thought about the facts presented to her. She knew Sai was a very observant, probably one of the best due to the rather unethical training Danzo uses on those he trains. He had picked up many things that others probably did not realize and had good judgement when it came to his missions. She sighed, this started out as a mess, and the mess had just gotten bigger. It was as if a hoarder brought home more trash when he or she should be throwing away what was not needed.

"I need time to think about this." Tsunade said finally. "This does not change that there could be more of his kind and if they would want to attack us."

Accepting this answer, Naruto left the Hokage tower, think about what had been revealed. He had to agree with Sai, Castiel was not the type to lie. That and he could clearly see that he wanted no one to be harmed. Sure, he was far from tactful like Sai was, but at least he didn't give him a nickname like "ball-less" and making jokes about his manhood.

' _There is no way Castiel is a threat._ ' Naruto thought. ' _His siblings might be, but he is different from what Sai told me. He actually feels regret, something that a threatening liar would never feel. That says a lot more than what he is._ '

Naruto saw the similarities between him and Castiel. Castiel was being labeled a threat just because he was something not native to their world. Just like how he had been labeled a threat for just being a Jinchuriki. He was also lonely in those times where villagers isolated him from their kids and tried sabotaging his chances of becoming a shinobi, which was something that he figured Castiel was probably feeling right now aside from unwanted. It just made Naruto feel upset. If he had stepped in sooner, he could have stopped Castiel from leaving.

Carrying this weight on his heart, Naruto headed home. He needed to try something. Hopefully it would work…


	6. Videotape

Binas: My surgery went very well. I even shocked a few of the doctors with how I was able to brush off the anesthetic IV drip. I was told I was suppose to be loopy and very unsteady, but I was the exact opposite. Perfectly coherent as one with their mouth numbed could be and a bit clumsy, but enough to trek some stairs on my own. As for recovery, it is almost done, should be able to eat chips and other things like that soon.

On another note, sorry this took so long. I have been scrambling with college funds and playing Grand Theft Auto IV and the Sims 3 (with Late Night, Seasons, Supernatural, and High End Loft Stuff expansion packs). Also, my computer has been a tiny bit of a butt, but I sorted through that for now. I just hope nothing else acts up.

And by the way, another character has made their debut in this story. I hope I didn't screw up the personality... As for next chapter, I have not had time to complete it as I have been taking the "complete a set number of chapters before posting" approach. So far, it can only hold out so long due to things coming up so much.

Reviews:

Guest (Chapter 1; July 28th): Thanks for informing me of that. I had to go by rough estimates due to things not being to scale. I am sure that some of the figures are wrong either way due to no exact information.

Interviner: Here's your answer. :D

.

Naruto took off his orange and black jacket and threw it into a random direction as he shut the door. Once that was done, he took off his sandals and tossed them towards the left side of the door. He sighed and walked towards the kettle on the counter. He opened it up and filled it up with water and set it to boil. As soon as that was set, Naruto opened one of the cabinets and pulled out a cup of instant pork ramen. He opened the lid slightly and set it next to the kettle.

The blonde went to the table that was a few steps away and sat down in one of the chairs. He placed his elbows on the surface and buried his face in his hands. Today was just long and in a way, a big slap in the face. Even with his abysmal scores from his days in the academy, he knew that.

'I just really hope whoever Sai talked to about this was not high off his ass.' Naruto thought as he got up to the sound of the kettle dinging.

Naruto poured the hot water into his cup of instant ramen. Now came the sad part about instant ramen: it took a few minutes for the ramen to go from dried to soft, delicious noodles with yummy broth. Three minutes for the water heat up always had been a pet peeve of his, but this was a close second in mundane terms.

Deciding to use this time well, he attempted something he never tried before. In fact, he NEVER seen anyone do it before nor had he really heard about such an action aside from one of the really, really weird monks in the country. He prayed, or what he assumed it was praying. Nobody ever taught him this stuff, so he was pretty sure he was doing a really bad job at it.

"Um, anyone listening?" Naruto began his prayer. "Yeah, uh… I'd like to talk to Castiel or anybody who is willing to help me understand something, if this isn't some sort of practical joke."

Naruto opened an eye and looked around and perked up his ears a bit. No sign of Castiel or any other weirdly dressed people suddenly appeared in his room. Groaning in frustration he picked up his chopsticks and began eating his ramen, which made him feel a bit better. After all, ramen could cure any emotional ailment.

Once only broth remained, Naruto slurped it up in one gulp and got up with the cup in hand. He tossed it into the trash and stretched with a yawn. He was tired and needed some sleep now. As he turned away from the bin and bumped into something, or rather someone. He let out a surprised yelp complete with his arms going into the classic anime position that typically accompanies shock. Blue eyes looked up at least one foot above their placement to find a pair of green-hazel eyes framed by sand colored hair and a rather amused smile that only a prankster could pull off correctly.

"Who the heck are you?!" Naruto shouted. "How did you get into my apartment?!"

"You prayed for someone to come?" the man asked with a smile. "Well I came."

"You're not Castiel, so who are you?" Naruto asked.

"I could tell you, but where would the fun be in witness protection part two?" the man asked, still grinning.

"What?"

"You know, the one when part one works out oh so well and you decide to help a couple of destiny defilers just to be offed by the writers," the man said, "Then brought back by Daddy and begging him to tell everyone you are still dead."

"Okay, you are not making any sense." Naruto said, knowing the stranger was screwing with his mind. "I asked for help with what's been going on here, not more crap to sort through."

"Fine, if you want a placeholder name from me, how does Susanoo sound?" the man asked. "Willing to call me that or would you rather call me "that guy" or "the man who broke into your house just because you asked him to"?"

Naruto blinked, this guy was weirder than Castiel and that was saying something. And that guy was pretty much Sai's clone in some aspects!

"Can you just please tell me what is going on?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, right." Susanoo said and snapped his fingers, causing a chair to pop up out of nowhere and slam into Naruto, forcing him to sit in it, "You might want to have a seat and some popcorn, I am showing it to you Dr. Sexy Md slash Casa Erotica style!"

The horrified look on Naruto's face told the whole story. He was definitely not going to go through this night unscarred. Before Susanoo could press play on the remote he pretty much pulled out of his ass and use it on the wide screen television he created out of thin air, the sound of wings filled the air. Right there off to the side, Castiel stood, looking just as expressionless as Naruto saw earlier.

"Gabriel, I thought you were dead." Castiel said bluntly.

"And there goes witness protection part two…" Susanoo, who was now known as Gabriel, said with an eye roll. "Come on, I am just trying to help the kid!"

"I don't think showing him porn is helping him." Castiel replied.

"I wasn't going to show him porn!" Gabriel retorted. "I'm not that big of a d**k!"

"WOULD YOU TWO STOP AND EXPLAIN ALL OF THE CRAZY STUFF THAT HAS BEEN GOING ON!?" Naruto butted in really loudly, causing a neighbor to scream "shut up, demon".

That got Castiel and Gabriel to shut up. Though that didn't stop Gabriel from wiggling his eyebrows in a playful family way with a smile.

"Define crazy for us." Gabriel replied. "I am sure Cassy is unable to recognize its usage here."

"You know, all the resurrections, Granny Tsunade thinking that Mr. Sai Clone is some sort of threat when he has been helping people, and wiping the memories of one Akatsuki member and who knows what to the other." Naruto listed, looking fairly irritated.

Castiel tilted his head slightly, confused by Naruto's nickname for him. He had not once made a cyclone in his life. And partly was due to not being as powerful as the Archangels. The only thing related to weather he could do was make thunder and lightning to intimidate those around him.

"Well, my nose is clean in this case. Shocker, right?" Gabriel quipped with a smile. "How about yours, bro?"

"Yes, that was all me." Castiel said looking down. "I was only trying to help. As for those Akatsuki members, one was going to kill a child and the other assaulted me. Like I said earlier to your leader, I have no intentions of threatening anyone. I don't want to fight anymore after everything."

"But why are you here?" Naruto asked. "There has to be a reason."

Castiel was silent for a moment. During this Gabriel pulled up another chair, sat down in it with said chair backwards and created a candy bar out of thin air to munch on.

"My reason is also the same as I said earlier to a couple of others: to gain penance." Castiel said.

"Oh so little brother thinks he committed the cardinal sin for unleashing the Leviathans and nearly killing his wittle fwiend." Gabriel teased between bites of his candy bar.

"Can it, Pervy Angel!" Naruto snapped, connecting what Gabriel was through his name similarities with Castiel. "You don't know how bad he feels because of it!"

"Listen, kid." Gabriel said tossing his wrapper at Naruto, making the blonde frown, "I have known what he did for a long time. Hell, he couldn't hide this little trip from me. And as far as I know, he's already been punished for his little stunt with the Purgatory Souls. No need to go overboard, Cassy, unless you want to be the first legally insane angel in an asylum."

Castiel stared at Gabriel, not amused by Gabriel's behavior. He didn't consider what had happened to him as punishment due to the wave of suffering for the Winchesters and the Earth each event brought. He felt they were another part of his mess that he was currently punishing himself for.

"But still, he feels bad." Naruto said, "If he just wants to make amends, then let him. He's not hurting anyone, nor is he been a jerk."

"Very well then." Gabriel said. "I guess I will be going back into my witness protection program now. As much as I want to help Castiel sort through his problems, even bigger problems are brewing everywhere, and everyone back at home knows it."

"What problems?" Naruto asked.

Gabriel pulled out a weird videotape and handed it to Naruto, who took the videotape, still looking a bit unamused.

"That will explain everything to both of you." Gabriel said. "Oh, and I recommend watching that with Tsunade and anyone else who should know. I wish you luck with the crap you are going to have to deal with."

"What?" Naruto asked, highly confused.

Instead of answering Naruto's question, Gabriel snapped his fingers and disappeared. Naruto looked at the videotape with disgust. Even though he could not understand the language written on the box, he could tell by the box art it was something right up Jiraiya's alley.

Naruto then looked at Castiel, who was still standing there. It was kind of creepy in the blonde's honest opinion. Creepier than what Sai usually does. At one point, Naruto swore that Castiel was not breathing due to how stiff his posture was.

"Are you going to stand there like some sort of statue or something?" Naruto asked. "It's kinda weird."

"Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts." Castiel said. "You should show that to your leader in the morning despite the indecent cover."

Castiel was about to walk out the door when Naruto called out for him. He turned around, ready to listen to what the blonde had to say.

"Aren't you going to stay?" Naruto asked. "I mean this tape, despite how gross it looks, could get Granny Tsunade and the whole village to trust you."

"I am sure that is not a good idea." Castiel said.

"You don't know that." Naruto said. "After you left, she said that she would think about letting you go. What you told Sai and how he observed you, Granny Tsunade might be able to provide you with help."

Castiel sighed. He knew the kid was going to keep pushing him and he didn't even need to read his mind. It was just that obvious, just like his orange and black outfit that was begging to be noticed by enemies.

"I will come, but I still think that the idea is horrendous." Castiel stated.

"That's great!" Naruto said happily, not noticing that Castiel had just state how he felt about the idea. "You can stay here if you have nowhere to go."

Castiel began to mull over the thought of staying at Naruto's apartment. For one, he would not have to worry about interacting with anymore of those Akatsuki members. They obviously had terrible motives thanks to the Obito Fiasco and probably will go to any lengths to get whatever they wanted when they wanted it. He just really hoped that they lacked knowledge of summoning demons and other nasty creatures that could bring this world to its knees.

The seraph casted a glance at Naruto, who now was putting on a nightcap, too excited to slow down his train of thought. Castiel could not understand why he would be excited about someone spending the night in his apartment. He once more was tempted to read someone else's mind, in this case Naruto's, but pushed the urge aside. He still needed to work on that.

Not wanting to disappoint the boy, Castiel stayed, though he did not say anything. Instead he did something that was rather unsettling. He attempted to watch Naruto sleep. Needless to say, Naruto's little display clearly communicated that was a big "no-no" to do. So in the end, he decided to entertain himself with the wide screen TV (on a volume that Naruto wouldn't be able to hear it) that Gabriel left behind. Then again, he didn't question why his older brother left it behind. It was Gabriel, and he, the youngest of the archangels had always left candy wrappers (prior to their invention) everywhere before masquerading as Loki.

.

The morning sun shined through the window, sending colorful lights through the drops of dew that refracted it. Some of the light swept over Naruto's eyes, causing them to shut tighter. Once he felt grasp of sleep starting to settle back in, a wave of a familiar scent tickled his nose. It was ramen. His eyes shot right open and he got into a sitting position quickly. There on the table was a steaming bowl of ramen. Naruto practically flew out of bed and immediately began devouring it after saying "itadakimasu". That was when he realized it was exactly the same as the pork ramen that Ichiraku Ramen makes. Naruto looked around and found Castiel sitting in a chair near the door.

"How did you get this?" Naruto asked.

"It's the ramen you gave me a few days ago." Castiel stated. "It took me awhile to figure out how to use the microwave."

Naruto looked to where the microwave was and found it in a sad state. It was still functional thankfully, but it looked like it went through hell, literally. Naruto cringed, surprised at how inept the seraph was with technology.

"But why did you save it?" Naruto asked. "It's been at least a day or two since I got it for you."

"As an angel, I do not have the need for substances to survive." Castiel replied, "If I were to engage in the act of eating, I wouldn't be able to experience it in the same way humans do. I would taste the individual molecules that make up the substance rather than the flavor of the combined product."

"That really sucks." Naruto said, feeling a bit saddened by that little bit of information as he looked at the bowl of ramen. He might have not gotten all of the scientific jargon, he did get the bottom line: Castiel had no need for eating and was unable to enjoy the variety of flavors food has.

Once Naruto had finished the returned ramen, he quickly put on a fresh batch of clothes and brushed his teeth. After that, he tied his headband around his head and picked up the wrong looking tape with his index finger and thumb and hid it inside his jacket. It was still disgusting. Then again, he was the one who invented the Harem Jutsu and the Sexy Jutsu through porn magazines when he was twelve so he should not be even thinking about that.

"Are you ready to go?" Castiel asked.

"Yep." Naruto confirmed. "I got the pervy looking videotape in my jacket."

"Good." Castiel said and approached Naruto. "This may feel weird and you might not poop for a week."

Naruto was about to ask him what he meant when Castiel teleported himself and the blonde into the Hokage's office, effectively once more surprising Tsunade. She looked very unamused, and not too thrilled on seeing Castiel back in her office so soon. What was even a bigger shocker for her was that Naruto was with him.

"What are you doing in my office, Castiel?" Tsunade asked, clearly not wanting to put up with the angel at the moment, "You better answer me or else."

"Listen carefully." Castiel said. "Something urgent came up and you need to hear it immediately."

Naruto pulled out the tape and handed it to Tsunade. She took it and instantly frowned.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Tsunade asked darkly, "Sorry, but porn is not that important!"

"I can assure you that it is not porn." Castiel said, "One of my brothers disguised it so if someone were to find it, they would not be likely to watch it."

Tsunade gave a look at Castiel, unable to believe what she was hearing. She may not like Castiel or trust him and she was sure that she needed more information before the Five Kage Submit to put in her two cents about him. This however, was getting her close to cementing Castiel into the Bingo Books. With a sigh she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You better be telling the truth." Tsunade said as she got up, turned on the TV, and put in the tape.

The video began to roll, and within the first two minutes it looked exactly like a porno. Tsunade was about ready to turn it off when something very unnatural happened. One of the characters broke the fourth wall. Both Castiel and Naruto knew who it was. It was Gabriel breaking the video's fourth wall.

"Hello, if you are watching this, then you are in some deep trouble." Gabriel began as he got close to one of the ladies on the bed, "Listen closely now: the primary Earth is currently in a massive mound of crap. Just like you feared Castiel, all the angels fell and some did not survive. So far we do not know who cast that spell, but one of the victims is here with me alongside some familiar faces."

Castiel instantly recognized Sam and Dean as they appeared on screen, obviously not very comfortable. It was probably the fact they were jammed into a message disguised as a porno. However, the third face was very shocking. It was Naomi, and she looked like an absolute mess.

"Hi, Cass." Sam greeted.

"Hey, buddy." Dean supplied.

Naomi didn't say anything. Instead she looked at the ground, feeling very guilty and ashamed.

"Now you are asking, what singles Naomi from the others?" Gabriel asked. "Simple, her grace was stolen and was probably used for the spell that kicked us out of Heaven. As far as we know and can prove, the spell is currently irreversible. As we speak, many factions are at each other's throats Tom and Jerry style except less slapstick, and more blood and gore. Now I believe someone has something to say to you…"

Gabriel shot a look at Naomi, and nudged her with one of his bare legs while giving a playful smile, making the former angel blush in embarrassment. She then cleared her throat and tried to compose herself.

"Look, what I did was wrong." Naomi began. "I'm sorry for what I did. Erasing your memories and trying to control you like I did. I just wanted what was best for Heaven as it was in chaos and very disorganized." A tear escaped the former angel's left eye, "I lost sight of our true purpose in the process. I don't expect you to ever forgive me, but please understand that I regret everything."

With that, Naomi broke down into full blown hysterics. She grasped Dean's jacket and sobbed into it. Dean gave a slightly weirded-out look and awkwardly comforted the former angel. Sam could not help but give a slight chuckle at his brother's predicament. It got so far that Dean mouthed the word "b**ch" while Sam retorted with a silent "jerk".

"Why does this hurt so much?" Naomi asked between breaths and tears.

Gabriel quickly turned the camera away from that scene, realizing how emotional it was getting.

"So that is all that we have on our side of the multi-verse aside from Crowley and every single demon he controls being AFK and Sam recovering from the Demon Gate trials, thanks to yours truly." Gabriel supplied. "Now let's talk about your end. Castiel, first of all: Death is going to kill you for what you have been up to. Then again, he's so p*ssed off that he does not care what happens to that world due to the fact they resurrected each other non-stop, so he might not do anything. And second, congratulations, you screwed up their timeline!"

That last sentence drew some massive attention to Castiel from Tsunade. Tensions rose in Tsunade as she narrowed her eyes at the seraph in the room. Whatever the brother of Castiel had to say next, there was a good chance that she would not like it.

"Okay, first of all, Asuma was supposed to die during that fight you butted into. Second, the Deidara was going to fight Sasuke, not you. But then again I doubt that fight would have really mattered. I have seen that kid and let's say I might have played with him and his friends." Gabriel continued with a playful smirk, "And man that girl with him is just like that creepy fangirl of yours, Sam. I barely had to do anything to raise hell on that emo baby, and that's just sad!"

Naruto had no idea what to think about that. Sasuke was his friend and he was really hoping that he didn't get hurt by Gabriel. Then again, the guy had only toyed with the blonde so it was possible Sasuke was okay, just needing brain bleach if he got forced to watch porn or something.

"Shut up." Sam said, sending a b**ch face right at the archangel.

"Anyways," Gabriel said, ignoring Sam and retaining his playful smirk, "I may seem like I know everything that is supposed to happen, but that was all I was told before we lost contact with the garrison that was put in charge of that screwed up Earth. I have no idea what is going to happen next; I know shocker." The archangel pulled out the infamous jazz hands gesture, "Things could go really badly or for the better at this point. I will continue to work from the shadows and supply you with information on both sides when I can. As much as I want to, but I can't promise anything. So bye, bye!"

"See you soon, Cass." Sam said with a wave.

"And whatever you do, don't get yourself ganked by something stupid." Dean added on. "Thanks to Gabe, I know what that orange fishcake can do, and boy do I wish I could do it."

"Dean, porn. Reality. Not the same thing." Sam reminded.

Naruto became a bit shocked by that tiny interaction between the brothers. He had gotten what Dean was referring to and face palmed. How the Archangel knew about the Sexy Jutsu, Naruto did not know, and was going to ask Castiel about it later.

With that the video tape resumed to being a normal porn video, making Tsunade instantly turn it off. She sighed if she had no idea what to think before, there was definitely no change to that opinion now.

"So what now?" Naruto asked, looking at Tsunade.

"I honestly don't know…" Tsunade said running one of her hands through her hair, "Nothing like this has ever happened before, and I doubt the council will fare any better with this knowledge. How trustworthy is the man who gave you this tape?"

"He is trustworthy when the situation calls for it." Castiel replied, "He would never lie about something as devastating as what he told us on this tape."

"And what does angels being kicked out of heaven mean for us?" Tsunade asked, needing to know the consequences.

"I am confined to this planet unless something truly dire happens as I was not present for the spell to completely affect me." Castiel said. "But from what I can tell, the ones affected are of at least the Seraphim rank."

"Ranks like skill level?" Naruto asked.

"Not entirely." Castiel said, "The main difference lies in how much power an angel has. A cupid and regular angels don't have their powers within them and are one of the easier ones to defeat. Seraphim like myself have their powers within them and are mid-tier at best. As for archangels, they're heaven's most terrifying weapon and are the most powerful class of angel with very little being even considered a threat to them."

Tsunade's face planted into her hands. Even though she didn't need to know the power levels, she knew that knowing them would not make a difference for the Shinobi Nations. Out of everything Castiel had done, nothing could be replicated without being classified as S Rank knock-offs with kinks, the most dangerous rank that can be given. Even if all the strongest shinobi banded together, taking down an angel seemed less and less possible with the new information.

"So you are stuck here, is that correct?" Tsunade half muttered.

"Yes, ma'am."

"And you absolutely promise not to harm anyone of this village?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And do you promise to help this village in any way possible?"

"I have told you that I am here to help." Castiel replied.

"I need to be sure that you are," Tsunade said. "I am not sure how it is on your Earth, but here trusting someone is very hard to do and more often than not, blindly trusting others will get you killed."

"I completely understand why you believe that." Castiel said. "Just be aware that I refuse to kill anyone, regardless who they are."

"Very well," Tsunade said. "I will let you stay here, but that does not mean that I trust you completely yet; so if you find any of the ANBU following you, don't do anything to them. Am I clear?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Welcome to the Hidden Leaf Village, Castiel."


	7. Rubber

Binas: Thank goodness cloud computing exists. Recently a file, big one, got corrupted and I had to do a system refresh or whatever it is called and go back to near factory settings. I still have my personal files, just not the applications like Microsoft Word until I reinstall them. Word of advice, Avira works too well. It deleted something important off my computer to cause the corruption. I will not be using THAT antivirus again.

Also, if anyone wants to, you may create a TV Tropes page for this story. I am not very good at creating pages on that site…

Also, bold is Black Zetsu unless specified.

Reviews:

Interviner: Oh heck yeah! It's hard not to. He is one of my favorites aside from Castiel and Balthazar. Besides, Gabe's return actually opens up more roads for me to take. I have quite a few to choose from like massive invasion to the "capture an angel" stunt that seems to pop up every now and again in Supernatural. What I do won't be made up until I start writing more.

Guest (chapter 6, August 8th): I was trying to get the proper speech he normally uses, but oh well. Who he could have learned it from, even I don't know. :P Yeah, I suck in that department of explaining that little thing.

.

Danzo was far from amused by the news that had came. Castiel was still a threat to him and the village. Tsunade had very little common sense if her recent verdict was anything to go by. While he did agree that the seraph was not to be trusted, everything else threw the village's safety out the window. So what if the angel healed a few wounded leaf shinobi? Those shinobi got wounded doing a vital service for the village; they sacrificed their own health and well-being to keep the tree well-nourished with their support that was the trunk.

Castiel was a poison in this metaphor, causing the trunk to wither and become diseased, threatening to make the tree collapse at any given point. His very being was toxic to the shinobi way of life. Death was not to be trifled with. Death has been and always will be to Danzo, an honorable end for any loyal shinobi. To extract such a thing from a leaf ninja would be blaspheme.

The leader of ROOT needed a plan. The likes of an angel had never been documented before in the history of the Hidden Leaf. Trial and error would have to be the method they take when the time was right. For now, the best course of action was to wait.

.

Castiel was led to one of the apartments in the Uchiha District that had been cleaned and restored to its former glory. One of the ANBU who escorted the angel showed him around the place, which Castiel thanked him for. While Castiel had no use for some of the rooms and appliances present, he didn't object to them. He had a feeling that some of the residents would eventually visit him, so they would need them. Overall, this would be a good point for hiding out from the Akatsuki. If his recent wandering taught him anything, the Akatsuki was very clever and very sneaky. How they managed to locate him twice remained a mystery to Castiel, and he hoped this time that they didn't get a hint of his trail again.

After the ANBU left, the seraph walked over to shelf that was located in the living room. There was a turned down picture. Castiel lifted it up to reveal a little boy with raven hair that was spiked up getting his forehead tapped by an older boy with the same color hair. Castiel tried to interoperate the picture, but due to being unfamiliar with some of this world's customs, he was unable to gauge what their relationship was.

Castiel moved on to one of the bedrooms to find a futon that was collecting dust and had old blood stains embedded in the fibers. This made him frown. Something had happened here and he didn't like it. Whatever it was, it was probably something he could do nothing about due to the lack of bodies in the vicinity and no one mentioning this to him. All he knew was, despite the protection against the Akatsuki he would receive, there was a possible threat in the village somewhere. Where and when it would strike, he had no clue.

.

Zetsu emerged from the ground. They gave a perplexed look at what he saw: the remaining members of the Akatsuki who were not on missions with strange weapons, strange flasks full of oil, chains and cuff with strange seals, matches, a strange book, and what was left from one of Hidan's sacrificial rituals. They expected Hidan's rituals as they were very common. The other things were just out of place.

"Leader sir, what is **with this crap?** " Zetsu asked.

"We have had a recent problem with an angel getting in the way of the Akatsuki. These items are to at least render him powerless." Pein stated.

"What **the hell** is an angel?" Zetsu asked.

"As far as I know, he is not approachable without precautions. So I would recommend not to attempt to consume him." Pein said, used to Zetsu's cannibalistic nature.

The black side of Zetsu scoffed a bit. Noticing this, the white half spoke up.

"Do you have **another mission for us**?"

"Yes." Pein said and handed Zetsu a piece of paper and a picture. "I want you to paint this seal on you somewhere. After you do that, look for this man and use your spores on him."

" **Under** stood."

With that, Zetsu slipped into the ground.

.

Castiel spread out his grace through the village, looking for any signs of danger lurking in the streets that were lit by the rising full moon. While his loyalties lied with the Winchesters and a tad bit recently with Gabriel, he was obligated to make sure no one attempted to harm the civilians.

The act of using his grace to keep a watch over the village caused a bit of confusion with the ANBU who were assigned to watch him. They did not see him spreading his energy all over the place, instead they saw a guy in a trench coat, staring blankly through everything in front of him as if he were in a trance. Needless to say, it was flat out strange.

Just when Castiel looked like he was about to stop "staring blankly through everything in sight", he disappeared with the sound of fluttering wings on them. The two ANBU who were to watch the seraph let out an exasperated gasp of annoyance and groans. It took them forever the last time he pulled that stunt on them. They were not in the mood to go hunting him down again, which was a nightmare due to the fact they could not sense chakra within Castiel.

.

The seraph had sensed something rather alarming. In fact, he was surprised he didn't sense it earlier due to how demonic it was. While it wasn't a demon per say, the malicious intent within whatever it was sure was close to an actual demon.

Once the Castiel had arrived where he had sensed the malicious intent he stared at the source. The sleeping form of Naruto… This greatly confused Castiel. Not once had the kid shown signs of being a demon. And if he was, he would have seen his true form. Instead, all he saw was a blonde boy holding onto his pillow for dear life in his sleep with sweat dripping down his face.

At this point, Castiel threw aside his attempts on trying not to invade someone else's mind, but he had no choice here. There was something very wrong here, and he did not need to have what almost any human would say "crap hit the fan".

Castiel put two fingers on Naruto's forehead and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he saw that he was in a sewer. A very humid, dark sewer. He expected to hear some stupid joke from Dean, but remembered that he was almost completely on his own in this world.

Castiel walked forward through the murky water, looking at every detail of his surroundings. He noted how many iron bars and archways of stone he had passed. So far, that number was around over four dozen for the iron bars which lined up inside 6 archways; three on each side. The seventh had no bars in its opening. Seeing that going past it was not an option due to it being the last archway in the watery hallway, Castiel went through it. Inside was a very large room, decorated with iron chains and iron bars of a cage with a piece of paper with a Japanese sigil kanji that was the equivalent to the English word for "seal" plastered right on the padlock. The floor, just like the outside area, was flooded with water.

Castiel peered inside the cage, curiosity being at the forefront of his mind. What he saw was quite unexpected. It was a giant, red, energy based kitsune with nine tails, large rabbit like ears, red eyes with vertical slit pupils, sharp teeth, and human hands with claws instead of front paws. Needless to say the beast was unamused by the angel's presence.

"How did you get here?" the kitsune growled in a deep voice. "You should not be in this place."

"I sensed malicious intent and came to find the source." Castiel replied, not even frightened by the kitsune as it was behind seemingly sturdy bars.

The kitsune began to chuckle, causing Castiel to puppy dog tilt his head in confusion.

"Malicious intent?" the kitsune asked. "I'm the embodiment of hatred! Of course there is malicious intent in here, you stupid human!"

"I am not a human." Castiel said and followed up by the robotic sounding "I am a wave of celestial intent inside of his true vessel which is human."

The kitsune raised an eyebrow at that then looked closer. What he saw was quite interesting. He saw a silhouette of something much larger than himself with a pair of gold wings jutting out from the form's back and two pairs of smaller wings curled to obscure the silhouette's head and feet. How such a beastly shape could possibly fit inside a human without some sort of jutsu at work was beyond his knowledge, but it was not very intimidating to say at the least.

"I see." The kitsune said. "I was mistaken then. But that meat suit does not change my judgement of you."

Castiel did not reply to that. Instead he let his face do that in the form of the best frown he could muster.

"What are you doing to cause Naruto distress?" Castiel asked.

"What does it look like to you?" the kitsune asked. "You seem to already to have some answers."

None of the more concrete ones, unfortunately. From what he gathered in his time being a nomad in this world to the lore he picked up in the Hidden Leaf, there were still things he had no clue about, one of them being the Jinchuriki. He knew how one was made thanks to numerous mind divings, but he did not know the finer details like the relationship between the vessel and beast. From what he could gather, there was no asking for permission or forceful entry like angels and demons. It all seemed to be done by the vessel or a third party.

"As to what you are, not to what you are doing." Castiel said finally. "I have never seen anything like your kind."

The kitsune was entirely confused. He was having an actual conversation with an alien being (to him), not being subjugated into torment like he was by his second jailor or being forced to "pay rent" by his current one.

"What do you want from me?" the kitsune asked, feeling very suspicious of Castiel's motive for coming.

"I want you to let Naruto sleep peacefully." Castiel replied.

"I don't believe you." The kitsune said. "Now, get. OUT!"

With that, the kitsune threw the seraph out of Naruto's mind. Castiel fell to the floor of Naruto's apartment and moaned. It had been a very long time since someone had actually thrown him out of their mind and it was not a missed feeling at all. Castiel dusted off his trench coat and left the apartment. That kitsune was definitely grumpy but did not currently seem to have anything on its agenda that would threaten the human population like a demon would.

.

Danzo held the tape that had been lying in Tsunade's office for the past day. At first he was baffled by the dirty looking thing being in the Hokage's office of all places. After thinking heavily about it, he realized that if they were truly porn, Tsunade would have thrown it away like she had in the past when Jiraiya sent her gag gifts like porn and indecent toys as his way of saying "I'm just messing with you".

So, to test this theory, he inserted the tape into his VCR and hit play. What happened was completely unexpected. The VCR turned into jelly beans. Danzo stared as the jellybeans fell all over the floor, revealing the tape in the process as if it were taunting him. He had no words to describe how silly this was. He did the seal for releasing genjutsu to find there was no genjutsu. It was real and there were still jelly beans all over the floor.

Just when Danzo was about to clean up the mess that the tape made, the TV became static. Danzo frowned and decided to ignore it. He was not like the other shinobi. He did not stress or get nervous when something like TV static happened out of the blue. There were other things to worry about that were of more importance. Bizarre TV static didn't even come close to making the list at all. After all, it was most likely bad reception.

Danzo scoffed and went back to cleaning up the jellybeans. That was when it hit him. He was thrown against a wall, which did catch him completely off guard. The main reason was the fact he sensed no chakra in the area. And two, the location of ROOT's main operations was hidden. That meant only ROOT members knew where it was.

"Looks like someone is being naughty…" a voice taunted.

Danzo got up from the floor and turned around to see a smirking stranger who obviously did not belong in the Shinobi World, just like Castiel did not belong. The stranger walked up over to the jellybean mess and popped a few into his mouth.

"Oh good, no snot or puke flavored jelly beans this time." The stranger sighed with mock relief.

"Who are you and how did you get this location?" Danzo asked.

"No, I won't give you spoilers!" the stranger nearly shouted in mock horror. "I already gave some other people spoilers and I refuse to spoil the surprise for anyone else."

Danzo remained calm, which was rather surprising for the stranger. The stranger obviously expected Danzo to get really mad off the bat.

"If you won't tell me who you are and how you got here, I will have to make you." Danzo said and threw a set of six kunai at the stranger. The kunai hit him dead center in the torso, but not making the stranger lose his amused smile.

"Was that supposed to hurt me?" the stranger asked innocently.

Danzo did not respond to that question as it sounded nonsensical to him. Instead he pulled out another kunai and focused his wind chakra into it, causing an aura of said energy to surround the kunai in the form of a scimitar. He then lunged at the stranger, impaling him with the weapon, just to get a chuckle out of him.

"Hey, that tickles!" the stranger laughed.

"Stop this foolishness, you abomination." Danzo said. "This world has no room for those like yourself. Your kind so far has only brought chaos and fear to this village if you are anything like Castiel."

"I'm the abomination?" the stranger asked, raising an amused eyebrow. "I'm not the one who decided to stick a bunch of eyeballs inside my arm, which could easily become a tumorous tree at any moment."

Danzo said nothing to that. He did not want to waste breath on defending himself from a being he considered vile and toxic to the Hidden Leaf. Instead, he plunged the wind infused kunai deeper into the stranger.

"If you are trying to do a biopsy on me, you're doing it wrong." The stranger once more remarked.

"Be quiet and die." Danzo said as the stranger's constant talking and remarks were getting pretty grating and rather stupid. "Your death will be a warning to Castiel that I intend to purge his filth from the Hidden Leaf Village."

"Me, die?" the stranger asked. "I don't think so. Besides, you have nothing in this crappy hideout that could possibly harm me. So if you are done, I believe it is my turn now."

With a finger snap, the kunai that Danzo had been using was incinerated and turned into ashes. Danzo instinctively released his grasp to avoid being burnt by the flames that came out of nowhere. Before he could grab his sword, another finger snap rang through the air, followed by landing in a sickly colorful environment.

" _My Little Pony,_

 _My Little Pony,_

 _Ahh ahh ahh ahh,_

 _My Little Pony!_

 _I used to wonder what friendship could be!_

 _My Little Pony!_

 _Until you all shared its magic with me!_ "

Danzo winced. He was going to get that stranger for this.

.

Gabriel laughed his ass off as he watched Danzo trying to keep himself sane and calm in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV show. Oh how he loved to stick assholes into ridiculous shows to teach them a lesson. It was almost as good as that time loop he stuck Sam in. "Ha, he got crushed by a piano!" Gabriel had laughed at one point. While Danzo's insertion into the popular fantasy children's cartoon would not affect the broadcasting at all, Gabriel could easily manipulate his copy of the show to create lessons that were tailored specifically for the Shinobi of Darkness.

"Toi mon amie, have a lot of work ahead for you." Gabriel said munching on the jelly beans he had scooped up from the floor.


	8. Calm Before the Storm

Binas: College had just started recently for me and I am already overwhelmed. I am so nervous; it feels like I am going to have a panic attack at any moment… I really hope I get the help I need… At the same time, please expect less frequent updates. Trust me, I still have lots of ideas, but not enough time.

.

.

Sakura had no words to describe what she was feeling accurately. Even though she had pretty much absorbed her secondary personality with the growth of her confidence, she could feel its remnants making quite the fuss. To say it gave her a slight headache would be an understatement. It gave her a migraine that she had to use her healing jutsu to soothe it whenever it came on.

First of all, while she was glad Castiel was not going to hurt anyone, someone had forgot to mention how much he was like Sai in terms of lack of understanding of basic social skills. Even though he did not attempt giving nicknames like Sai did, he had very little concept of known as "being tactful". And he was at his most horrendous when he pointed out how a futon in his current living quarters was covered in blood when he was asked if ever needed to sleep. Every Hidden Leaf Village citizen and shinobi knew that the blood was from the Uchiha Clan Massacre, and it was truly a very dark moment in history. The fact he mentioned it with a straight face and so bluntly was rather unsettling.

After getting over that, Sakura had to admit, Castiel was amazing. Not in the romantic sort of way or anything like that. As far as she knew, no one in the history of shinobi had ever met an angel. She was very curious about what it was like for him, but never really got to ask. The reason why was not very clear. While she had the right opportunity to ask, she just couldn't despite wanting to. There was no external factor or anything. It was all within.

"Is something troubling you?" Castiel asked, noticing the turmoil within in the pink haired girl.

"No, I am fine." Sakura replied, "I am just trying to wrap my head around the concept of there being a higher power like your father and that he created us."

Castiel nodded. He knew that a good chunk of humanity, regardless of where they were, who had forgotten who made them. This was partly was due to lack of faith that grew with every generation. It was very saddening. And even saying that could not express everything that the entirety of Heaven felt.

The Seraph went over to the picture frame of the two boys and picked it up. He then walked over to Sakura and showed her the picture. She looked at it, giving huge vibes of sorrow and anger.

"Who are these two?" Castiel asked. "This picture has been rather intriguing me and I have a feeling it would help me understand more of this place."

Sakura wiped a tiny tear from her right eye. She grabbed the picture and stared at it before opening her mouth to speak.

"The younger one is Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke, Naruto, and I went to the academy together almost three years ago. He was given a curse mark by a dangerous rogue ninja and former member of the Sannin named Orochimaru during the Chunin Exams. After that, he became very obsessed with power and went to Orochimaru for more."

Sakura paused. It just hurt to remember the day Sasuke left. The mark had changed him. Sure he wanted to be strong enough to defeat his brother, but it was as if that curse mark magnified that desire into an insatiable appetite that drove him to nearly killing Naruto. Despite all that, Sakura, Naruto, and their friends wanted to bring Sasuke back home. They all cared about him despite the grief his departure left.

"The older boy is Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother. I don't know very much about him other than the fact he murdered every family member except for Sasuke and being a part of the Akatsuki. He hurt Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke very badly with a genjutsu called Tsukuyomi. I don't know what that genjutsu does exactly, but it put the both of them into a coma for a while. Only Tsunade was able to get them out of their comas. What I do know for sure is that Sasuke wants to get revenge for murdering the entire clan."

Castiel watched Sakura's attempt on holding back her tears. She truly missed this Sasuke guy. Unfortunately, Sasuke's current escapade sounded a bit like his time as playing God with the Leviathans but with many twists and different motives. The both of them wanted power to get rid of someone and that was where the similarities ended. From what he could tell, Sasuke had no desire to stop. Those with power obsessions rarely come to their senses, and Castiel was lucky he was brought back to his.

"Do you know where they are?" Castiel asked.

"No." Sakura said, "I don't. But I hope Sasuke is okay for his own sake."

That brought what Gabriel had said into mind about "raising hell on that emo baby". There was a good chance Sasuke was probably not fine in a sense. Thanks to Sakura sharing a bit of information about him, Castiel assumed that this Sasuke person was going to do something very foolish soon. As far as he knew, it was not demon deal foolish due to the obvious lack of Crossroad Demons.

Sakura heard the sound of flapping wings and with alertness, turned her head in the direction of the sound. Castiel had disappeared on her. She gave an unamused, deadpan look at the spot where Castiel once was. Outside, she could hear someone yelling "NOT THIS AGAIN". It became very clear that Castiel had been pulling this stunt several times. She muttered something under her breath with clear irritation.

.

Tsunade gave a slightly annoyed expression as she watched the perverted Sannin climbed into her office. The fact that he and a handful of other shinobi used the window as an entrance instead of the door was just irritating.

"What news do you have Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked.

"First off, it is safe to assume that the Akatsuki are currently laying low and from the looks of things, our feathered friend is one to thank." Jiraiya began, remembering the notifications Tsunade had been sending on the angel situation, "I am not entirely sure what their next move will be. My contacts have been having a rough time getting accurate information."

Tsunade sighed. She was afraid something like that would happen. The Akatsuki going under the radar was never good. They were probably planning something big. The last time they came back on the radar, they were kidnapping Jinchuriki. Before that, it was causing civil war in the Hidden Rain and being hired mercenaries for a good portion of the Five Shinobi Nations (mostly the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Mist).

"Maybe it is because most of them are drunk prostitutes." Tsunade remarked as she sipped some sake.

Jiraiya chuckled a bit causing Tsunade to shoot a glare at him. She knew what her former teammate was thinking, and it certainly was not appropriate.

"If you want to live, don't you dare say what I think you are about to." Tsunade threatened.

"Okay, no need to be feisty there." Jiraiya said picking up one of the discarded empty sake bottles from the waste bin, "I was just thinking of the irony, that's all. You have been doing a lot of heavy duty drinking lately."

The glare did not retreat from Tsunade's visage. She could easily see the fact that Jiraiya was just trying to cover his own perverted ass. Then again, if he didn't learn when she broke his ribs and damaged his organs for peeping on her, it was highly unlikely he would learn to stop flaunting his perverted tendencies now.

"Is there anything else you want to mention?" Tsunade asked, getting closer to the end of her rope.

"Yes. I have been thinking about taking Naruto with me to teach him Sage Mode." Jiraiya said, regaining a more serious composure, "Since we have no idea when the Akatsuki will make their move again, I thought now would be a good time to teach the brat the next level."

Tsunade was a bit surprised by that proposition. She had expected Jiraiya to make another crude, sexual joke. Teaching Naruto such a powerful technique would help him defend himself even better against the Akatsuki and help him get closer to his goal of bringing Sasuke home. At the same time, Naruto would be safe if something happened. She was still very wary about Castiel, especially after Danzo's disappearance. The only shred of good news in that department was the fact the ANBU were able to confirm that Castiel was no where near where Danzo was seen last.

"You may take him to go learn Sage Mode." Tsunade said in approval, "Just try to not to get yourself nearly killed this time."

Jiraiya sighed. She just had to bring up _that_ time. Not it was not the peeping incident. It was his second near death experience, and it was the ugliest of the two.

"Relax, Tsunade." Jiraiya said, with a small grin beginning to grace his lips. "I won't be messing with the seal this time. Though I will be carrying many suppression seals to be on the safe side."

"Good." Tsunade responded, "You are dismissed."

"Love you, too." Jiraiya teased as he began to step out the window, earning a deadpan look from the Hokage.

Once the pervert left the office, Tsunade went back to work on the paper work that had began to pile up on her desk. As she was writing, she heard the familiar sound of wings rustling. She looked up and saw Castiel standing in the middle of her office. The lone female of the Sannin nearly face planted into her hand; she could only guess what the angel was doing this time.

"Tsunade, why was I put where a massacre took place?" Castiel asked.

That question caught the Hokage off guard. She was not only confused, but annoyed by this revelation. She was going to have a strict talk with whoever had the bright idea to stick him in the Uchiha District.

"I'm so sorry about that." Tsunade said. "I told them not to drop you off there. It has been unfit for living for a long time. Shizune, can you come here?"

Shizune rushed into the room, holding TonTon in her arms.

"Yes, Lady Tsunade?" Shizune asked.

"Please escort Castiel to his actual living quarters." Tsunade said, "One of our ANBU brought him to the Uchiha District instead."

"Certainly." Shizune replied, "Come on. Let's get you to where you really were supposed to be during your stay."

.

Naruto was very excited about what Jiraiya told him. While he still hadn't tested his new Rasenshuriken yet in battle, he knew that he had to keep training and learning new techniques so he could drag Sasuke's rear end back home, become Hokage one day, protect those he cares about, and to protect himself from the Akatsuki.

The blonde knucklehead practically flew into his apartment and threw all the essential items he could find ranging from personal hygiene to ramen. During this, his room went from decently clean to what could be considered a war zone. He would fix that later though. He needed to be ready to leave whether his perverted sensei was or not.

As Naruto was trying to decide which ramen type he should bring, he heard a knock on the door. He rushed over and opened it to reveal Hinata Hyuga, the heiress for her clan.

"Oh, Hinata," Naruto said with a friendly smile, "I wasn't expecting you today. Come in."

Hinata nodded and entered the apartment. She had pink blush spreading across her cheeks with a meek smile. Naruto brushed this off for possible heat exhaustion.

"Do want me to get you some water?" Naruto asked.

"Um… No thanks. I'm fine." Hinata replied.

"So what brings you here?" Naruto asked.

"I heard that you were leaving and I just wanted to wish you good luck." Hinata said, trying to avoid eye contact as her blush darkened a bit.

"Thanks!" Naruto said, beaming. "But don't worry, I will master Sage Mode as quickly as I can!"

Hinata remained silent, but the smile she was giving spoke what she thought, even if Naruto missed some of it. Without even thinking, she hugged Naruto, catching the boy off guard. Despite the initial surprise, Naruto returned it. This in turn made Hinata feel so many emotions ranging from romantic love to happiness that it overwhelmed her, causing her to break the hug. Naruto was once more startled, but before he could voice it, Hinata ran out of his apartment, leaving the blonde very confused.

.

Zetsu emerged from the ground in front of Pein. The look on the split being was not easy to decipher but Pein could tell there was news and it was likely it would be interesting.

"Leader, sir." Zetsu said, " **We found the freaking angel.** "

"Where is he then?" Pein asked.

"He is with **the Leaf Shinobi.** "

Those words caused Pein to frown. This was going to be difficult to deal with. The angel was already bad enough by himself, but with him being in the Hidden Leaf Village, it was very likely they would get in the way and give Castiel an opportunity to escape if they went with the one team method. This called for very drastic measures to ensure success.

"Gather everyone at the hideout, even if they are in the middle of a mission." Pein commanded, "We need to act now."

" **We're on it**." Zetsu said as he seeped back into the ground.

"Castiel, I will teach you the true meaning of pain." Pein stated to no one in particular, his eyes narrowing with determination.

.

Castiel sat in his actual living quarters (an apartment near Naruto's), listening to Angel Radio. The screams, while not as loud, rang through his mind. His siblings were no longer confused, they were angry. Furious at worst. Apparently one of the factions lead by Bartholomew discovered who had cast them out of heaven. The culprit was Metatron the Scribe. Castiel was genuinely surprised that he was still around and that he would do such a thing.

Luckily, Castiel was able to use Angel Radio to have a private conversation with Gabriel. He needed to discuss this information with him.

' _Gabriel, the other angels say that Metatron caused the fall_.' Castiel said telepathically. ' _Is there any chance that this is true_?'

' _I have honestly no clue_.' Gabriel replied. ' _The guy ditched Heaven before I could and that's saying something_.'

' _Why would you have such a contest_?'

' _Oh Cassy_ …' Gabriel chuckled. ' _Even after all the time you spent with humans, you still have little understanding of their figures of speech_.'

' _Please stop getting off topic, this is serious. The situation has escalated and everyone is fighting each other now. If we don't fix this, the Primary Earth will be destroyed_.'

' _What do you think I have been doing since I left your hiding spot? I will give you a hint, I have not been watching porn_.'

Castiel massaged his aching head. The longer he tried to keep the conversation private, the more it exhausted him. Despite the pain, he continued to keep the private "transmission" running.

' _Okay then. Is there anything that I should know_?'

' _Oh yeah! Dean was really p*ssed when I told him what you were up to after my first visit to that OP bin you dumped yourself into. But as of that little video I gave you, he and your friends miss you_.'

Castiel became saddened. He did not intend to make them all unhappy by going into hiding with the Angel Tablet. He thought what he was doing would be a relief for them. As far as he knew, the information inscribed on it would do immense amount of damage to all angels if it were translated to someone with ill intent.

 _'Also, that little spell on the gate_ ,' Gabriel continued, ' _It has a small hole in it. Since it used the grace of a Seraph, only an angel stronger than a Seraph has a possible shot at removing Metatron's stupid idea of family game night. Though it is likely that it could still hold up against my heavy duty party tricks_.'

Castiel sighed a bit. There was some good news. Thanks to Gabriel being alive, they gained a shot at undoing this mess.

' _When should we remove the spell_?' Castiel asked.

' _Not now for sure_.' Gabriel replied, ' _If we crash the d**chebag's party while he still running around, Metatron will take another angel's grace and recast the stupid spell and cause more of us to die_.'

' _Is there any possibility that you will be able to help the Winchesters stop Metatron? As you are aware, I am stuck here until the spell is reversed unless something dire happens_.'

' _If they can keep their guns out of each other's asses. I know it is supposed to be sticks but they don't use them. If they did, then I am sure our rating would go from teen to mature_.'

Castiel ignored Gabriel's crass fourth wall joke. It was really unnecessary, but he did have a point. Dean and Sam were only willing to work with Gabriel for the video because they knew it was an important message. They didn't really like working with the archangel due to the list of pranks he pulled on them in the name of "teaching a lesson".

' _Before I hang up, Dean just informed me that Abaddon just boosted her threat rating. They got back from a demon hunt that ended pretty brutal. Thanks to Crowley being locked up by your pets, she is taking Hell by storm. Looks like overthrowing Metatron is going to take a while. Look, just stay in the world you are in for now. We have no idea how long you could be out of commission if you attempt a return trip_.'

Gabriel ended his end of the communication, leaving a pit in Castiel's stomach. This was very bad. Oh so very bad.


	9. The Flood

Binas: The chapter you have been waiting for. Brace yourself and make sure your hands and feet remain inside the ride at all times. The big one has arrived. And yes, this chapter is named after one of my favorite songs from when I was very little: "The Flood" by Jars of Clay.

I hope you all enjoy. Big things ARE happening. And I hope it is great.

By the way, I FINALLY finished watching the Pein Arc. And boy was it satisfying. I nearly cried a few times. Also, the episode Planetary Devastation has to be, hands down, one of the best episodes, regardless of the off model animation. In my opinion it was perfect the way it was. It was tense, a bit chuckle worthy, and fluid. If you don't agree, that's okay. It's my biased opinion.

On the Supernatural side of things, I am beginning Season 11. The episode I just finished was " _The Bad Seed_ ". All I have to say is poor Castiel. I just want to hug him. He really got the short end of the stick.

And as a side note, since the Six Paths of Pain are basically hive minds controlled by one person, any thoughts made by any of the Peins are unified. And for why I am using the second Animal Path, well, it was just preference. She seemed to fit the role of a summoner pretty well.

Interviner: I could have not said it better myself.

Guest (Chapter 8; September 2nd): [Pats Cass's head too.]

Cheeky Cheating Charlatan:

Thank you. I try really hard to make my stories the best they can be. Trust me, this story is very fun to write since I love both shows. And I don't judge you, Castiel is one of my favorites, and I can relate a bit to Shikamaru in the terms of "brilliant but lazy". As for SuperNaruto fanfics in general, I am surprised at how few there are since both do have potential to intermingle thanks to the various spells and powers that the Supernatural universe has. As for the rest of your reviews, read on to find out. There's lots of cool things happening, especially in this chapter.

.

.

Obito smirked behind his mask as he watched the Akatsuki members that remained prepare for their biggest objective yet. He had full confidence that this mission was going to be successful. While initially Castiel being in the Village Hidden in the Leaves sounded bad, it actually made another objective easier. That objective was to capture Naruto. Sure, they would have to wait until the other beasts were sealed in the Gedo Statue before sealing the Nine Tails, but they would not have to go track the pesky Jinchuriki down later.

On another note, Obito was also glad Rin was on his side. He may have cheated a tiny bit with his Sharingan, but it was a means to an end. He was going to make sure she did not leave his side. He did not want to lose her again, and that was a part of the reason why she was going to stay with him in the shadows. They weren't going to be fighting unless it was absolutely necessary. And since the Akatsuki was equipped to fight Castiel properly now, they should not have to resort to joining the fighting.

"Do you have everything we will need ready?" Obito asked in his Madara voice.

"Yes." Pein said simply as he looked at the Angel Blade (with the name "Samandriel" inscribed in Enochian on the hilt) in his hand.

.

Castiel sat on a park bench, watching the civilians go about their daily routines and interact with the flora and fauna. It was very peaceful. In fact, this was the most peace he had since his arrival.

The seraph's eyes travel down towards his feet. He saw tiny lavender flowers poking out of the grass blades. He plucked one of them and held it in his hand, rubbing it between his fingers in thought. He wondered how Dean, Sam, and Gabriel were doing. He knew they would be able to handle Abaddon together, after all, Gabriel was strong enough to handle such a demon. What had him the most concerned was the violence between the various angelic factions. He knew no one would be safe if it broke out into an all out war. The reason why was that such a fight would likely destroy a medium sized country at minimum. An entire continent at worse.

Castiel sighed. He really missed his brother and friends. It was at that moment, someone sat next to him. He looked up and saw Kakashi.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Kakashi asked.

"It is." Castiel replied simply.

"Is there something bothering you?" Kakashi asked, noticing how out of it the angel seemed.

"No." Castiel said, allowing the flower he was holding to be blown away into the wind. "I was just thinking about how similar this park is to one the heavens I like to visit."

"And which one would that be?"

"The Tuesday afternoon of a 40 year old autistic man who drowned in the bathtub." Castiel said so bluntly, it made Kakashi sweat drop a bit.

"That sounds really... Interesting…"

Castiel said nothing. He just continued to watch the activities of everyone in the park. He could see from the corner of his eyes Kakashi pull out a really, really perverted book titled " _Make Out: Tactics_ ". Kakashi began reading it, trying not to giggle at the sex scene present in chapter he was currently reading. Castiel noticed how aroused Kakashi was thanks to the obviously trashy novel, but said nothing. Even after the Pizza Man incident, he still didn't understand porn very well so he figured it was best not to mention it. After all, humans did not like hearing each other talking about porn, especially around guys.

A ball rolled up to Castiel and bounced off his leg. He looked down and picked it up. The seraph looked around to see a couple of kids waving their hands, gesturing for the ball back. Castiel got up and walked over to the kids, and handed the ball back to them.

"Thanks, sir." one of the kids said.

Castiel nodded and went back to the bench as the kids returned to playing with the ball. Before he could sit down, he spotted something that was human shaped soaring across the sky without any visible assistance. He tilted his head, confused as to how a human learned how to fly without any contraptions like an airplane or a glider.

"Kakashi, can humans fly on their own here?" Castiel asked.

"If they have a jutsu that enables flight, then yes." the silver haired shinobi said without peeling his eyes from the smutty book.

"Oh."

Castiel felt rather silly for asking such a question. In this world, people could wield supernatural powers without being burnt at the stake or being hunted by monster hunters. Plus, from what he had seen, just about everyone who knew how to fight had some freaky power up their sleeve.

Just as he was about to sit down, the ground shook with tremendous force. A few seconds later, another shake. Kakashi shut his book, fully alert thanks to the unusual phenomenon.

"Are there any fault lines around here?" Castiel asked, wanting to be sure this was not an earthquake.

"No." Kakashi replied, "There isn't."

Castiel looked behind him, seeing the frightened civilians. Without giving himself a second to think, he rushed over to the kids and picked up as many as he could. Kakashi was about to ask the angel what he was doing, but Castiel disappeared with the sound of flapping wings, leaving many startled civilians.

.

Castiel reappeared in the middle of the forest that was surrounding the village. He set the kids down, who began to cry.

"What's going on?" one kid sobbed.

"I don't know, but I don't like the looks of it." Castiel said, "You need to get somewhere safer."

"We have underground bunkers in the Hokage Monument." another kid pointed out. "We should hide there."

"No, that won't work." Castiel said. "Underground is not a safe place right now. You need to run."

"But I want my mommy!" a third child cried.

Castiel touched the crying kid's forehead, and shifted through his memories until he found the memories of the child's mother. Once he was certain what she looked like, he disappeared, leaving the kids very scared. A few seconds later, he reappeared with the child's mother. The mother ran up to her child and hugged him tightly, not wanting to let him go.

"We want our mommies too!" the remaining children cried out, seeing that one child got his mother.

Without wasting a second, Castiel repeated the exact same process of searching each child's mind for what their mothers looked like. Once that was done, he once more disappeared to only return with their mothers. Despite not being asked for it, he also brought their fathers and siblings if they had any.

"Now go." Castiel said, "Nowhere in that village is safe."

With that, the children and their families ran. Castiel turned around to face the village to see smoke and dirt clouds rising. There was no denying it, the village was under attack. Just who would do that was completely unknown, but he had a feeling large scale attacks were a common thing in this village.

Castiel teleported back into the village's park, staring at the damages that had taken place in the few minutes he had been away. And it was all caused by a monstrous centipede that had to at least be hundreds of meters long and had the most bizarre eyes Castiel had ever seen. His angel blade slipped out from one of his trenchcoat's sleeves, reflecting what little sunlight that got past the clouds of debris and smoke at the monstrous insect. With the sound of flapping wings, Castiel appeared on top of the monster, and stabbed it in the back of the head with the angelic weapon, causing a white light to explode from its eye sockets and mouth in a terrifying display. As the creature began to die from the power of the angel blade, it sounded a loud, unholy screech and fell to the ground with an ungraceful ' _thump_ '.

Just as the seraph was climbing off the dead centipede's head, another creature reared in. This time, it was a three headed mutant, giant dog with strange eyes. The three headed dog glared at Castiel, seething with anger and predatory instinct. It lunged at the angel, sending Castiel flying backwards into a wall, creating an indent, with a kick of its front paw.

Castiel picked himself up and glared at the monstrous dog. He raised his right hand, making it and his eyes glow with the power of his grace. However, this intimidation tactic failed and the dog merely tried to eat him. Thankfully, Castiel had teleported onto the dog's head just in time.

The seraph slammed the palm of his hand onto the left head of the mutant dog, smitting it with a burst of white light and grace. However, this did not put the monstrous dog down as he hoped. Instead, the two remaining heads split from the dead one, creating another head in the process while leaving a dead mutant, one headed dog on the ground. Castiel was definitely not amused by this ability at all. So much in fact that he took out his angel blade again and stabbed it right through the dogs' conjoined neck, causing the desired effect: the entire giant, mutant dog to fall down dead, not just a portion of it.

But however, that was not the end of the fighting. Instead, more monstrous animals and insects came Castiel's way, followed by the screams of people who got caught up in what seemed like brutal slaughtering and many other things. Needless to say, even he knew that the village's military was insufficient to deal with this massive attack.

' _This is getting worse._ ' Castiel thought, ' _I need to find out who is coordinating this._ '

At that moment, another centipede appeared, lashing itself at the angel. Castiel was once more, sent flying through the air into another building.

' _After I am done dealing with the source of these monsters._ ' Castiel added on.

As Castiel got up, he felt a sharp sensation scrape across his skin, followed by the wound glowing a bit. Castiel's hand shoot up to the wound, and tried to heal it as fast as he could, just to get another lashing.

"HEY, B**CH!" a very familiar voice sounded. "HERE'S PAYBACK FOR LAST TIME!"

Castiel turned around and saw Hidan, looking as bloodlusted as the day they first encountered each other. However, he was not carrying his usual scythe. He was carrying a scythe that had three silver colored blades. And those blades were obviously forged from an angel blade. Castiel was very surprised, and at the same time, not very pleased.

"Where, did you get that?" Castiel asked.

"Like I'd tell you anything!" Hidan spat and threw his scythe at Castiel again.

Castiel quickly teleported out of the scythe's way and landed next to Hidan. Instead of being able to get the upper hand, he got his chest slashed by an angel blade, making him wince in pain.

"Finally you scream!" Hidan said with a demented smirk. "Too bad I can't sacrifice you to Jashin. He said that you have something that belongs to him."

Hidan went for a disabling blow, but instead he landed in the dirt. He looked up and saw that Castiel was nowhere to be found in the area.

"UGH! DAMN YOU!" Hidan screamed.

.

Castiel landed on top of the Hokage building, clutching his wounds. He used his grace, trying to force them to recover, but it was still going rather slowly for his liking.

' _Hidan should have not been able to get his hands on angel blades._ ' Castiel thought. ' _There is only a few non-angels who got their hands on them and they are the Winchesters and… Crowley..._ '

Castiel was now rightfully angry. Crowley had found him without a doubt. And he was now most likely using the Akatsuki to get the Angel Tablet. This was bad. Very, very bad. People like those in the Akatsuki should never have their hands on such weapons like the angel blade and the power of the tablets. From what he knew, it would be disastrous.

"I WASN'T DONE WITH YOU, B***ARD!"

Castiel dodged Hidan's attack in the nick of time. He could not drop his guard now, especially since this guy had intent to keep on fighting.

Castiel grabbed Hidan's neck before the crazed man could retract his scythe. He then lifted the albino off the ground, using enough strength to ensure that Hidan would not escape.

"Listen to me, I do not wish to kill you," Castiel said in a dangerously low voice, "But you will tell me where Crowley is."

Hidan blinked a couple of times before bursting out in maniacal laughter.

"Just listen to yourself, asshole!" Hidan cackled. "Is THAT the best threat you can say to someone with immortality? Tobi was more threatening when he was pretending to be a complete dumbass!"

Castiel pinned Hidan onto the ground, annoyed by Hidan's attitude.

"Your immortality is not going to save you from me." Castiel warned, "So it is pointless to assume such things. You will tell me where Crowley is!"

"I won't even tell you where to screw a prostitute!" Hidan resisted, "Now just let me get what you stole from Jashin!"

Castiel saw this was going nowhere. He decided to go more intrusive and touched Hidan's forehead, probing every memory involving Crowley, some of which were rather crude. He at least now knew who Hidan was referring to when he kept saying the name "Jashin".

The seraph removed his fingers from Hidan's forehead. That was when Hidan went from mad to angry.

"What the hell was that about?!"

"I just got what I needed." Castiel stated, "It seems like Crowley left this world days ago."

"Heh, looks like using his old name didn't work." Hidan said, "That doesn't matter. I will still enjoy tormenting you until you give up that stupid rock."

Instead of getting a verbal response from Castiel, he got an angel blade to the torso. Light erupted from Hidan's eyes and mouth as his skeleton became visible due to the power from the angel blade. Hidan screamed briefly before falling to the ground dead.

Castiel pulled out his blade from Hidan's corpse, panting. He realized what he had just done. He didn't want to kill the guy (despite how nasty he was). He could not help himself due to how irritating the albino was.

Looking towards the horizon, more plumes of smoke formed. The light from the fires that sprung up, illuminated the increasingly darkening skies. It was, in his opinion, his fault. Castiel mentally kicked himself. If he had chosen to remain nomadic in a sense, this attack would have never happened.

He quickly brought himself out of his guilt and remembered that now was not the time to rethink his past actions in this world. This place was still being attacked.

Castiel jumped off the Hokage Building, landing feet first on the ground. Since he had no idea what to exactly look for, Castiel dashed in the direction with the most smoke and surprisingly, water.

.

Pein's Tendo Path walked through the streets, occasionally killing anyone who got in his way. There were two main objectives to this attack: getting rid of Castiel and capturing Naruto. He knew both objectives would not be easy, but they would both lead to his end game with a tailed beast weapon that could be used to make people remember the pains of war and hatred by annihilating any of the shinobi countries attempting to start a war.

He went down the next corner of the alleyway and found a strangely dressed man with sand colored hair and hazel eyes. To boot it, he was eating candy without a care in the world.

Pein used Almighty Pull and forced the guy into his grip.

"Tell me where Naruto and Castiel are." Pein demanded.

"Dude, I was eating candy and I don't know anyone named after food." the man said then pointing behind Pein, "And second, isn't that little Cassy right there?"

Pein turned around and saw Castiel standing right there. As soon as Pein dropped the man and raced after the seraph. Once Pein was out of sight, the man snapped his fingers, causing a huge fart sound and plumes of stench to emerge from the direction "Castiel" ran. Pein returned to the man's line of sight, covered in literal crap. The man chuckled, slapping his knee.

"I did not expect someone like YOU to fall for that!" the man cackled. "I wish I had a camera!"

At that moment, the man found himself pinned to a wall. Pein approached the man, clearly not amused.

"Enough with the childish games." Pein said, "Tell me where those two are. I will kill you if you refuse or lie to me one more time."

The man's smile didn't waver. Instead of showing fear, he began giggling again.

"Can't you see it?" The man asked then began to ramble, "I mean, since we aren't biological in the sense your kind is, I can see why you don't." The man recomposed himself, "Here's the thing, I am Castiel's _way_ older brother. He might have watched your kind be put together from dirt and a rib bone, but I watched the multitude of universes being made. Lesson here, you are way beyond your league." the man broke out in an even bigger smile, "That's right, you are playing with the one and only Gabriel the Archangel. And you, aren't going to tell me to do s**t."

With that, Gabriel snapped his fingers, effectively disappearing right before Pein's eyes. Pein looked down at the ground to find a pile of candy wrappers and lollipop sticks. This was not something he was expecting. He did not expect there to be another angel within the Land of Fire's borders, much less for Gabriel claim to be older and more powerful than Castiel. This turn of events made this very mission much more dangerous than it already was.

Pein looked down at the angel blade that Crowley had given him to find that the blade part itself had been turned into white chocolate while he was not looking. He dropped the angelic weapon with disgust and annoyance. Gabriel, despite not being within any of the Six Paths' line of sight, was still a huge nuisance that he hoped did not get in his way anymore.

.

Kakuzu was definitely not an easy opponent to deal with. Castiel could easily tell from the moment he saw the masks on his back separate and become their own entities, that they were capable of wielding an element on their own. Those elements were water, fire, wind, and lightning. Kakuzu himself wielded earth.

Castiel watched as Kakuzu tore apart one of the Leaf Ninjas with tendrils that emerged from his body. It was disgusting and unlike anything that he had seen on the Primary Earth.

Kakuzu looked into Castiel's direction and unlike Hidan, he showed no sign of cockiness. The seraph saw normal confidence and lots of greed and anger within this Akatsuki member.

"Looks like Hidan underestimated you." Kakuzu stated as he retracted the tendrils from his now dead victims. "I told him that it was a bad idea to go charging after you alone."

Without a single warning, the water mask shot a torrent of high pressured water right at Castiel. The seraph quickly teleported out the way, landing next to said mask. Before it could react, Castiel slammed the palm of his hand onto the mask's forehead, smitting it into a charred husk.

Castiel prepared to attack the other masks just to find them increasing their distance from the angel along with Kakuzu. Once Kakuzu was sure that he and his masks were a safe distance from Castiel, the lightning mask charged up.

"LIGHTING STYLE: FALSE DARKNESS!"

Spears of electricity emerged from the mouth of the lightning mask. Castiel tried to dodge but got hit by the attack and got not only electrocuted, but a hole in his torso to boot. He quickly gathered up some grace and it only took a second or two to get the hole into a less severe state. Castiel perked up when he heard another mask prepare an attack and quickly got out of Kakuzu's line of sight.

' _I can't underestimate the angel._ ' Kakuzu thought as he picked up his destroyed water mask, ' _It is becoming very apparent that he was holding back when we first encountered each other. I need to get this information to our leader._ '

With that, Kakuzu reabsorbed his remaining masks, and left the area. Castiel sighed in relief from his hiding spot. He knew he could not hide for long as things were getting worse with every single creature summoning and attack. He decided to make the most of his current safety to continue heal the injury Kakuzu inflicted on him and get a bit of his strength back.

Once the hole was completely gone and he had a bit more grace recovered, Castiel got up and checked the surrounding area. From what he could tell, the coast was clear from demons, but he still had no idea who to look for in terms of the creature summoner. The only one he knew was still in the village was Kakuzu, and that was because he sensed Kakuzu's soul during their battle and knew what it felt like.

Castiel needed a plan if he was going to deal with Kakuzu. He didn't want anymore lives to be sacrificed than there were already. At this point, putting him in a coma would not be in his best interest. Hidan was an example of that. He would have to do what he did with Deidara; whitewash his memories. It was the most he could do at this time.

With that in mind, Castiel teleported to where he sensed Kakuzu. Once he had arrived he saw Kakuzu holding a match. Castiel instantly knew what was going on. However before he could get out of the area, a ring of holy fire erupted around him. Castiel stood there, glaring at the Akatsuki member.

"So this is one of your weaknesses after all…" Kakuzu mused, "How pathetic."

Kakuzu pulled out an angel blade and walked up to the ring of holy fire. What little sunlight that remained visible glistened off the holy weapon.

"Now, where did you hide this so called "Angel Tablet"?" Kakuzu asked pressing the blade up against Castiel's chest, creating a wound that glowed due to Castiel's grace. Castiel hissed from the pain created by the wound.

"Bite me." Castiel said through the pain.

Instead of a verbal remark, he got another wound inflicted on him.

"I wouldn't test my patience if I were you." Kakuzu warned. "There's a reason why I have Hidan as my partner."

"I won't tell you where it is." Castiel said. "It was not meant to be possessed by humans aside from the prophet."

Another wound was made on Castiel's body. This time it was deeper than the first two.

"I am being serious." Castiel once more protested through the pain. "The amount of damage it could cause would be beyond anything that this world has ever seen."

"I don't care about damages as long it doesn't put a dent in our budget." Kakuzu said, creating another deep cut on Castiel. "You will tell me where you hid it."

Castiel continued to glare at the missing nin. Even without talking, he was able to get across of his intention of revealing the location of the Angel Tablet. He would gladly die if it meant that the tablet was never found again. Kakuzu saw this and went for the killing blow, just for the angel blade to go from deadly weapon to plastic and foam. Kakuzu stared at the now useless weapon with disbelief.

"If you are wondering, that was not me." Castiel stated.

Kakuzu, filled with rage, immediately impaled the seraph with many tendrils. Blood spurted from Castiel's mouth and newly formed wounds. Despite this attack normally being a killing move, Castiel showed no signs of dying by impalement from his tendrils.

Without any warning, Kakuzu's eyes and mouth lit up, signifying someone was smitting him (or using an angel blade). The now dead Akatsuki member fell to the ground, revealing not just burnt husks of Kakuzu's remaining masks, but Gabriel.

"Just how often are you going to play the damsel in distress, bro?" Gabriel asked.

Castiel stared at him blankly, obviously not amused by his older brother's teasing. Gabriel rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, creating a rain cloud above Castiel to form. Once it was nice and full, it began a torrential rainfall, causing the lower ranking angel to become soaked within seconds.

"Is this payback for the time we left you in the sprinklers?" Castiel asked.

"In a way, yes." Gabriel said, smirking. "You're welcome."

"I thought you were helping Sam and Dean with the Abaddon and Metatron problems." Castiel stated.

"I am in my own way but obviously I can't leave you alone, now can I?" Gabriel asked. "Oh don't don't give me that look! They aren't in another one of my TV universes or stuck in an infinite time loop!"

"What did you do?" Castiel asked.

"They are in a pocket universe that is to help them with fighting the current big bosses." Gabriel replied. "If they get themselves killed, no biggie, the level resets… Oh wait, that is a time loop, but a good one! They will get to learn what could work, and what might not."

Castiel raised an eyebrow a bit. If Gabriel was truly not screwing with Sam and Dean this time, this would be one of the very few and rare times where he used one of his favourite pranking methods for someone else's benefit. Abaddon from what Castiel knew was a force to be reckoned with as she was a Knight of for Metatron, he had no current information on him as he had also disappeared like Gabriel did. From what Gabriel had supplied the seraph with, Metatron was doing something absolutely foolish. Due to the civil war and with Raphael dead, Michael and Lucifer stuck in the cage, and Gabriel in his "witness protection program", many angels were very likely to strike at each other with little thought.

"Are you sure it's helping them, not embarrassing them?" Castiel asked, remembering Dean reminiscing the Herpes Ad Gabriel made them do.

"They have already managed to survive against heavy guard duty a few times." Gabriel said before cringing, "Though they keep screwing up the part with Abaddon herself."

At that moment the ground began shaking again. Looking up, the two angels saw the source. A chameleon trying to camouflage from them.

"Oh how cute!" Gabriel mocked, "It thinks we can't see it!"

The chameleon lashed out its snake for a tail at the angels, creating a huge pot hole right where they were standing. The tail rose up, revealing that the angels were not there. It tilted its head, positive that they were right there. While it was scanning around the area, Castiel and Gabriel landed on the chameleon's head, startling it. Due to the lack of warning or time, the chameleon was unable to shake the two off its head before they could do a combined smiting. The chameleon quickly spat someone out and began to scream in writhing pain before falling over dead on the ground with eyes fully burnt out.

Castiel and Gabriel looked on and saw a young woman with orange hair, a bunch of piercings, an Akatsuki cloak, and the weird, purple, ripple patterned eyes. She wore barely any emotion, on par with the same amount as Castiel gave especially in his earlier days around humans.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!" the woman said in a monotone voice, causing another giant, mutant dog to appear.

The dog, with no verbal orders, lunged at Gabriel. Gabriel was quickly swallowed up by the monstrous dog, much to Castiel's horror. The dog then ran away from the scene, taking his angelic meal with him. Just as Castiel was returning his attention to the woman, he was barely able to deflect the angel blade that came his way, courtesy of the summoner. The two began trading blows with angel blades, deflecting every single hit that the other threw.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Castiel asked. "Why are you and your group destroying this place?"

"I am the Chikushodo Pein. All I want, is to show everyone the true meaning of pain," the summoner said, sending another blow with her angel blade, "And for you to give me the Angel Tablet."

Castiel quickly blocked the blow with his own, putting each other into a deadlock with their own strength (or in the Chikushodo Pein's case, chakra gluing her feet to the ground and fortifying herself against the angel's strength) being the one thing preventing one of them from getting wounded by the angelic weapons.

"I won't give it to you." Castiel said. "I already had to tell one of your members that it is dangerous and that no one should ever have it."

The Chikushodo Pein said nothing in return. Castiel continued trying to knock the summoner off her feet. That was when he was tackled from behind by a bulky guy with the same hair color, cloak, and piercings. Castiel broke free from his grip and quickly teleported several meters away from the newcomer (who Castiel quickly learned from a brief mind read was Gakido Pein) and the Chikushodo Pein.

' _I was unable to absorb any chakra from him._ ' Pein thought. ' _Looks like Crowley was not lying about Gakido Pein's chakra absorption jutsu being useless on him._ '

With that thought in mind, the two paths retreated. Castiel had no idea why they retreated, but all he knew, it was very bad if they were going to prepare something.

Castiel decided that the best course of action was to get to his older, much more powerful brother. With a little thought and grace, he teleported a short distance away from Gabriel, showing no signs of ever being eaten and, a smaller, normal eyed, still monstrous puppy version of what ate him.

"You turned that monster into a puppy?" Castiel asked, completely confused.

"Sure, why would I not?" Gabriel said with a smile. "It's much cuter and way less violent than the semi-possessed adult version it was."

"It was possessed? By what?" Castiel asked. "There were no ghosts or demons from what I sensed."

"Another human, surprisingly." Gabriel replied, seeming a bit confused as well. "In all of my millennia of existence, I have never seen anything like that happening." Gabriel picked up the puppy and gave it a good scratch behind the ears, "No spells that witches have made even come close to what this poor guy went through." Gabriel then began to coo to the dog, "Yes, I am going to give your asshole of an owner his just desserts then give you to an awesome owner!"

Castiel stared as Gabriel gave attention to the mutant puppy. This one of the things he would have never expected his older brother to do in pretty much forever.

"Gabriel, we need to focus," Castiel began, "The Akatsuki are attacking and they want us dead."

"Cassy, let me ask you one thing. Can they actually kill us as in what Luci did to me?"

"Yes. Crowley was here and not only did he give the Akatsuki holy oil, he gave them angel blades."

Gabriel's laid back expression faded and was replaced by surprise. He knew of the demon Crowley and the fact he was once a human named Fergus who sold his soul for a bigger penis, but he had no idea that he had been here.

"Well, we're going to have to wait for the Cavalry then." Gabriel said. "I don't want to die if they get a hold of my archangel blade."

"What Cavalry?" Castiel asked, tilting his head a bit. "I was not aware of knights being here."

"Bro, you really suck at metaphors…" Gabriel chuckled. "I meant fish cake. I sent small alert to them while I was in this cutie's mouth. They should be here soon."

"What do we do until then?" Castiel asked

"We just avoid Pein." Gabriel said simply. "Well, unless you want to risk a slight hunch I have."

"What is it?" Castiel asked as he quirked an eyebrow.

"I know you have the Angel Tablet jammed in your gut." Gabriel said. "Nice hiding spot by the way; one of the most creative hiding spots I have ever seen aside from the guy who stuck a grenade up his ass and died."

"How did you know?"

"I'm an archangel, remember?" Gabriel replied while wiggling his eyebrows playfully.

Castiel sighed then asked, "What is your hunch?"

"Have you felt like you had any extra energy or like you were able to do things that you shouldn't be able to do?" Gabriel asked.

Castiel thought back to when he first came to the shinobi world. He remembered that around the time he healed the little girl from the poison and allergy to the spider bite, that he felt a very rapid recovery of his grace. Faster than it should have been. Then there was were Castiel healed Obito from the blindness that he got from viewing the seraph's true form. He should have not been able to heal that, but yet he felt the power he needed to fix coursing his very being. Castiel looked at Gabriel with realization.

"Yep, the Angel Tablet does that to angels who wield it, and you, Cassy, have been doing it accidentally if your face is anything to go by."

"How could I not realize this sooner?"

"Don't think about that so much. So, you want to test out the powers the tablet gave you?"

"No, I don't. I don't want a repeat of what happened when I took in the Leviathan."

"Suit yourself. In the meantime, I'm going to check on those Winchesters. They should have made some progress by now."

With that, Gabriel gave a wink and snapped his fingers, disappearing right before Castiel's eyes. Castiel began to think about what he should do. Since the tablet was giving him an upgrade that should only last as long as he had the tablet, he needed to be very careful. He knew he was an impulsive angel, and having this much power was going to come at a huge cost if someone did what Hidan did and ticked him off. The conclusion he came to was that it was best to sit out of the massive battle. After all, he did not want anymore blood on his hands or to be shed.


	10. Need to be Strong

Binas: Here is chapter 10, and now since the big climax is super close, I decided to call this chapter "Need to be Strong", after the instrumental track from Naruto. Besides, this is a Naruto story too, so I have to throw it in despite the fact a few other songs were competing to be chosen. Those songs were Needless Violence (an instrumental by INTELLIGENTSIA for RPG Maker VX Ace), GO! By Flow, Narukami (Shippuden OST), and Shippuden (Naruto: Shippuden OST).

Also, I'd like to recommend this journal entry for those curious of Itachi's illness.

chuunin*livejournal*com/6039777*html

On a side note, if it seems like I dropped a plot point, please be aware, in this chapter, things happen off screen and some of them do occur the same way they do in the anime.

Reviews:

Interviner: I have actually, but Castiel would need a reason why he should bring Minato back, his body and soul, and the mechanism behind the Dead Demon Consuming Seal (mainly because Minato's soul was eaten by that jutsu). If I just did it out of the blue with no build up, then it would not work well. If I find myself writing up to something like that, then you and everyone else reading would know.

Guest (Chapter 9, September 14, 2016): Well, in a way he does have to worry about. He is very impulsive and he does do things in the spur of the moment. However, I do have something that you and everyone else might want to see in this chapter… The best part, there was subtle build up at least two chapters back.

.

.

As the moments passed around Castiel, things got progressively worse. More and more buildings fell. More and more people got slaughtered. More and more screams were heard from all corners of the village along with mourning for those who were lost. It was heartbreaking for anyone who was present within the carnage. The poor seraph could barely stand it as the screams were just as bad as the screams that his siblings sent out through Angel Radio almost non-stop. It made him question his decision of sitting out. He had very legitimate fears of losing himself to the power he swore to not only not abuse it again, but to keep others from making the same mistake he did while high on Leviathans. He felt that if he did something as simple as evacuating civilians, he would still feel anxious about his extra "Angel Mojo". He felt so helpless despite the power he now wielded.

While Castiel was basically sulking, someone was watching him. The person made no sound, but could easily tell how torn the angel was. The person walked carefully towards the seraph, being sure that no one besides Castiel would notice himself.

Castiel looked up and saw a familiar face. It was the face from that picture he had found in the Uchiha District. Itachi Uchiha was his name. Castiel was about to teleport somewhere else when Itachi spoke up.

"I didn't come to fight you."

"If you are asking for the Angel Tablet, I will not give it to you. I already had to tell the others that possessing it is dangerous." Castiel said.

"I am not here for the tablet either." Itachi stated. "I just wanted to ask you something."

"What do you want to ask?" Castiel asked.

"What is your purpose here?" Itachi asked.

Castiel thought a bit. He had originally came here wanting to keep the tablet safe and atone for every wrong doing he committed. Then with the discovery of how lost and unstable this world was without any angelic presence, he began trying to right that wrong. Then came Obito's messed up plans, which infuriated him with the implications involved. With the discovery of how the tablet affected his grace, he became very fearful of himself, distracting him further from his original purpose of being here.

"I don't know anymore…" Castiel replied, looking away in forlorn. "I thought I could fix what my brethren refused to, but now I am not sure if I can."

"So you are going to give up?" Itachi asked. "What would happen if you did?"

Those were two questions that Castiel tried not to think about. He wanted to go back to when things were not as complicated. When right was right and wrong was wrong and that there was no need to worry about his family feuding with each other.

Then there was the possibility of what could happen if he quit right now. This world could lose everything that his Father gave them such as free will. This world could have its own apocalypse and there would be no one who could put an end to it. This world could die for real this time.

"No," Castiel began, "I won't let this world die because of me being selfish."

"Very well." Itachi spoke and handed Castiel an envelope. "This has information for Jiraiya and Tsunade. Please don't tell anyone it was from me."

As Itachi was about to leave, he broke out into a huge coughing fit. Blood spurted from his mouth in large quantities. He fell to his knees, unable to find the balance he needed to stand. Castiel sniffed the air and smelled something very wrong with Itachi. He reeked of unnecessary amounts of antibodies, inflammation deep within his lungs and veins, and much more. With no second thoughts, Castiel touched Itachi's forehead and poured some healing grace into him. The pain that was going rampant through Itachi's body ceased and was replaced with the feeling of warmth and comfort, something that he had not felt in a very long time.

"I healed you your of the Microscopic Polyangiitis and deteriorating eyesight. Consider it as a thank you for not being like the others within the Akatsuki." Castiel said.

"Do you know why you healed me aside from trying to say thank you?" Itachi asked.

"Because, your brother needs you regardless of what he may think of you now. And you can't be there if you are dead." Castiel said. "I have been on the same road Sasuke is currently on and I am still trying to gain penance for what I did while on it. If my friends weren't there for me, more damage would have occurred."

Itachi said nothing. The sign of him being in thought not very visible at a glance, but he was, without a doubt, thinking about what Castiel said.

"I know that you killed your family, and you don't have the soul of a person who would kill family members without a justified reason." Castiel continued. "If you took time to explain everything, I am sure your brother would eventually understand."

With that, Castiel disappeared with the sound of large, flapping swan wings. Itachi looked at were the angel had been, silently thankful for Castiel's good nature and the bit of returned help. He had not expected for Castiel to help with his terminal illness. He now knew, Castiel's presence was not toxic like Madara (Obito to the readers) and Pein had declared. He saw that he was just trying to do the right thing. With the seraph helping Naruto, he was one-hundred percent certain things would work out in the end.

.

Konan could not believe her eyes. She was looking right at Deidara, of all people, looking for the source of the carnage when he was presumed dead. What really took the cake was the fact he was in civilian clothes and lacking the scratched Hidden Stone Village headband and Akatsuki cloak.

"Deidara, what are you doing?" Konan asked.

"Who are you?" Deidara asked, perking up. "And how do you know my name, un?"

Konan frowned. She was certain the blonde right in front of her was playing some sort of big joke. Sure, he was typically a little more serious, but he did have a small streak of being a brat with mean spirited behavior.

"Enough of this, explain yourself now." Konan commanded. "Why didn't you come back to the hideout?"

"In case if you didn't get it, I have no clue who you are, now just leave me be." Deidara said and shoved past the paper wielder and walked away.

Konan was unsure what had just occurred. The feeling that this was genuine sat into her stomach, making it feel a bit knotted. He had no memory of the Akatsuki. This was something that she had not seen coming. All she knew now was that Castiel was the one who did this to him.

' _I need to alert Nagato right away._ ' Konan though before dispersing into hundreds of sheets of pristine, white paper.

.

Castiel appeared in the middle of the Hokage's office. Tsunade (who had a blue slug on her shoulder) quickly turned around and was met with an envelope addressed to herself and Jiraiya.

"I was asked to give this to you." Castiel said as he handed the envelope over to Tsunade.

Tsunade took the envelope and began reading the contents. What she read shocked her. She could hardly believe what was in her hands. She was holding the answer to who Pein was. Tsunade looked up at Castiel.

"How did you get this?" Tsunade asked.

"An anonymous source." Castiel replied, "He told me that he does not want to be known at this time."

Tsunade and her slug's eyes trailed back to the papers. There was no denying it, the Hidden Leaf Village had a chance to survive now. The Fifth Hokage quickly grabbed the duplicate papers and handed them to Shizune (who also had a slug on her shoulder).

"Take this information to intelligence immediately." Tsunade said, "There is no time to lose."

"Yes, my lady." Shizune replied and darted out the door.

Tsunade turned around and saw that Castiel was not there. She sighed, knowing that Castiel was most likely going to go back to avoiding battle. While it was not the time for such behavior due to the Akatsuki Invasion, she didn't question it. It was something that the angel needed to overcome. Just like how Tsunade herself had to overcome her fear of blood.

' _It's time to end this..._ ' Tsunade thought and went up to the roof, ready to confront the assailants.

.

Konan's paper butterflies flew threw the village at high speeds, searching for one of Nagato's Peins. However, when she found them, they were all on the ground outside of the village, unmoving. If she wasn't a mass of paper butterflies, her eyes would have widened, knowing what was to come next and she could not stop it as she knew that Nagato would do anything to inflict horror upon the village that was responsible for so many evils towards himself, his friends, and the Hidden Rain Village.

' _Oh Nagato..._ ' Konan thought sadly and immediately went to where Nagato himself was.

.

It happened so quickly. One moment he was standing in a vacant part of the burning village looking for at least one of the attackers. The next thing Castiel knew was he was on the ground surrounded and covered by rubble. With his angelic strength, he threw the massive chunks of what used to be buildings off of himself. All bruises and scrapes mended themselves within the blink of an eye, leaving no scars behind.

Everything was quiet, and not in the good sense. This silence was the type that followed after a massacre with wails of the survivors being the only sound for miles. This lack of noise left a pit in Castiel, gnawing at his being. This had to stop now for it had gone way too far for far too long.

Castiel looked in the distance and saw a hulking blue man in the Akatsuki cloak with a bandaged sword. With little warning, Castiel lunged at the man, his ALL three pairs of wings exposed (a pair emerging from his head, a second from his feet, and the ones he used to fly) to the world as translucent shadows, flapping furiously as he tackled the man. The seraph was royally angry now.

The man managed to throw the angel off of his back. From the look on his face, Castiel had clearly caught him off guard. He probably was never caught off guard before if anything was to be assumed. The seraph tried to overpower the man again, but found it useless as he was able to block it in time with his large, bandaged sword. That was when Castiel felt the sword attempting to absorb something from him. That was when it screamed. Castiel was greatly confused by this because as far as he knew, swords don't exhibit human characteristics.

The hulking blue man quickly removed the sword from Castiel's scratched hands, alarmed by the sudden outburst from his sword. He carefully placed it on his back and patted it.

"Sorry, but it looks like you will be sitting out of this battle, Samehada." the man said to his sword before turning his attention to Castiel. "You are going to pay for that."

The man threw the first punch at Castiel, nearly missing him. Then came the second punch, which was caught by Castiel. The seraph threw the man's fist to the side and once more attempted to tackle him. The man kept his footing and reacted fast enough to prevent him from doing so.

"Aren't you a feisty little guy?" the man asked with a sadistic grin while making a series of hand signs. "Guess I will have to do something about that. WATER STYLE: WATER SHARK BOMB JUTSU!"

A large shark made of water manifested itself and with a single gesture from the man, it slammed into Castiel, sending the seraph back several feet. Castiel managed to get back up and quickly teleported a few feet away before the man could land another attack on him. From behind, Castiel tackled the man, pinning him on the ground.

"Where's Pein?" Castiel hissed. "Tell me right now!"

"I would die before telling you anything." the man said.

Following this, the ground around the man became like a fluid, allowing the man to sink into the ground, effectively freeing him of Castiel's hold. The seraph looked around the surrounding area for any sign of the man's presence. What he found was that the man had came back a few short seconds later, slamming into him. Castiel once more was knocked over. The man came back up from the ground and landed a punch on Castiel before he could recover.

"You're not making this very exciting by not even trying." the man said.

"I don't want to accidentally kill you like I did to Hidan." Castiel replied, getting up from the ground. "Just, please tell me and I will leave you be."

The shark-esque man burst out laughing. Castiel tilted his head in pure confusion, failing to get the reason behind the unexpected reaction.

"You accidentally killed Hidan? Impossible!" the man chuckled then slamming a fist into Castiel's torso. "Hidan is immortal. A shark could maul him and he would still cuss up a storm from inside his or her belly!"

Castiel once more pinned the blue man to the ground, this time using a bit of his grace to make sure that he would not get up.

"I am not sure what you found funny, but I assure you that I was not lying." Castiel stated sternly.

The man frowned before saying, "Prove it."

Without warning, Castiel gripped the man tightly and then within the blink of an eye, the man found himself standing right in front of Hidan's charred husk. The man was obviously very surprised, having a hard time believing what he saw. He even tried to dispel the non-existent genjutsu to find that it was indeed real.

"See why I was not using my full strength?" Castiel asked. "I didn't want to kill him but he insisted on going too far. Please, don't do the same. I don't want anymore blood shed…"

"Then why did you tackle me?" the man asked.

"I was angry that Pein destroyed everything here." Castiel replied. "It is bad enough this could be happening due to all of my own brethren being banished from heaven back on the Primary Earth. I just want this all to stop."

The man gave Castiel a weird look. It was apparent that he had not expected that to be the answer.

"You're really naïve, aren't you?" the man asked. "You think that this will stop? We live in a world full of lies and fighting. There is nothing that can stop it, but Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan."

Castiel frowned. He thought he was done hearing about that horrible plan. It was still very wrong.

"Please, don't mention that insulting plan again." Castiel said looking away.

"It's not insulting." the man said. "The Eye of the Moon Plan is supposed to create a world of truth! No more lies and betrayal!"

"I hate to say it, but you were misinformed…" Castiel said grimly. "That plan is going to remove the gift my Father gave all of humanity."

"What part about lying is a gift?" the man asked, glaring at the angel.

"Lying is not a gift my Father would ever give. The gift He gave your kind was free will." Castiel said shaking his head, displeased at the numerous times he had to explain this. "Very few angels are able to comprehend the concept of free will like humans can."

"I still rather live in the world Madara promises." the man argued. "What is the point of free will if others are going to use it to betray and lie to everyone?"

Castiel glared slightly, feeling very insulted by the words that flowed from the man's mouth. With only the movement of closing his fists, the man became telekinetically bound in place, unable to squirm from the seraph's hold.

"Don't ever say that again." Castiel said sternly, once more forgetting the definition of personal space. "Your kind chose what to do with my Father's gifts to you. He wanted you to be able to chose your own paths, not be drones who only obeyed commands like majority of my brothers and sisters do."

"If being a drone means no more betrayal, then I'd gladly give up my free will any day." the man said, glaring back at Castiel. "It has caused nothing but suffering!"

Castiel, in a fit of insult induced rage, threw the man on the ground and slammed his palm onto the man's forehead. With a burst of grace, he killed the man. Once more, it was very saddening and disturbing. He was reverting back into the soldier mentality that had been ingrained into him the day he first came into existence and he didn't like it.

At this point, he realized it was likely that this would eventually happen again thanks to how this world got so easily under his skin. Normally he would be more controlled than this. But with all the talk of getting rid each others free will, it was just too much. Much more than Crowley could ever hope of being.

Castiel sat on the ground next to the man's corpse and held his knees close to his body. He was trying so hard to prevent this, and he knew he couldn't quit now for there were too many lives at stake. He could barely think of anything that would stop this peacefully and in a way that would prove that he was there to repair everything that has gone wrong.

As Castiel was more or less sulking again, a large, dense cloud blew throughout the area. If Castiel had been human, it would have blinded him completely. The seraph looked up and saw four toads that could rival the size of a two-to-three story house back on the Primary Earth. On top of two other them was Naruto and a white haired man with two, small, human baby sized toads fused to his shoulders.

In front of Naruto, the white haired man, and the toads, of the Paths of Peins showed up and they were Tendo, Ningendo, Shurado, Jigokudo, Chikushodo, and Gakido. The Tendo Pein looked at Naruto and the white haired man (Jiraiya, Castiel learned from a quick mind read) while Gakido Pein looked at Castiel.

"It seems that all of my targets are in one place now." Pein said.


	11. What Doesn't Kill You

Binas: Hello everyone. Recently, I had an issue where I was not getting your guys' reviews. I have already contacted them, and it appears to be fixed for now. I really want to hear your guy's opinions and suggestions. Yes, as you can tell, I am very open to them, even if I don't follow through with some of them due to plot and stuff. Sometimes I even put weird twists on them. Anyhow, let's get started!

Interviner: You do bring up a good point. It might be possible, but would be a huge risk for the character who has to use that jutsu (I am sure none of them know about the Shinigami Mask in the Uzumaki Mask Storage Temple) because of the fact it is a really nasty piece of work.

I know, I know, some parts are unchanged, but there is no other way I could write them. They were touching and I left them unchanged as a nod to Kishimoto. Seriously, I nearly cried writing parts of this chapter. If there is one thing Kishimoto knows how to do aside from adding some messed up things, it's adding heart filled messages about never giving up and bonds between friends and family.

 _ **PS: I forgot to mention that Naruto was in Sage Mode last chapter. I am sorry for not putting that in.**_

.

.

Jiraiya could not believe what he saw. Right in front of him was one of his former students. From the eyes alone he could tell it was Nagato, but everything else screamed Yahiko. The others, he might not have recognized, but they too shared Nagato's eyes.

"Pervy Sage, are you okay?" Naruto asked.

"No, something very wrong is going on." Jiraiya said.

Before anyone could ask what Jiraiya had meant by that, Shurado Pein stepped forward and raised his hands. Both of the appendages morphed into cannons and were aimed at Jiraiya and Naruto and Castiel.

"Surrender now and I will assure you that your sacrifice will be for the better of this world." Pein said.

"What?!" Naruto blurted out. "No way! Not after what you did to our home and our friends!"

"Naruto, let me handle this." Jiraiya said and jumped off the toad, Gamabunta, he was standing on, "Nagato, so this is what you have become, eh? You became this Pein I have heard a bit about. What happened you?"

"That is none of your concern, sensei." Pein said, causing Naruto to look at Jiraiya and Pein in shock.

"You taught this guy?!" Naruto shouted, pointing at Pein.

"Yes, back when the Second Shinobi War was going on." Jiraiya stated. "I taught them ninjutsu to help them survive in the tough times and hoped that one day they would find the peace they were looking for. I thought they had died in Hanzo's assault, but it appears that was not true."

"And we are getting closer." Pein stated. "We just need the remaining tailed beasts and the Angel Tablet, now surrender Naruto and Castiel. You can't beat a god."

"You are not a god." Castiel spoke up. "Not even close to a pagan such as Thor and Kali."

Pein gave a hardened look at the angel. He raised his hand and gravity began to tug at Castiel, trying to force him in Pein's hand. Castiel tried to resist with his grace and wings (which all three pairs were displayed as shadows by accident), but went flying towards Pein instead. Pein pulled out an Angel Blade and slashed a large cut across his torso. A large slab of stone went flying out of the wound and went thump on the ground a few meters away, unscratched due to the softened dirt from Pein's Almighty Push earlier. Pein tossed Castiel to the side and sent his Ningendo Pein towards the Angel Tablet to pick it up. As he bent over, loud music began to play with lyrics such as "Heavy metal thunder, Racing with the wind" and "Like a true nature's child, We were born, born to be wild" clear as day.

Suddenly, a large black car (which Castiel recognized as the Impala) came barreling in and ran over Ningendo Pein, breaking every part of his body from the momentum while sending him flying several meters into the air and even more meters horizontally at the same time. Everyone gave highly confused looks. Naruto looked absolutely gobsmacked, as if his mind was playing tricks on him. He rubbed his orange highlighted eyes, trying to get rid of any dust that could possibly causing him to see such a sight. Castiel on the other hand looked ticked. He knew what happened and who was behind it very well.

"Gabriel…" Castiel groaned as he began to attempt to sit up.

Out of the Impala's backseat, Gabriel stepped out, grinning just as mischievously as a cat who trapped a mouse in the corner. Castiel sent a sharp glare at the archangel, who ignored it as he walked over to the Angel Tablet, picked it up, and put it back into Castiel's gut. Once it was securely back in the seraph, Gabriel healed up the wound, ensuring that it would not fall out.

"You should be a lot more careful with that." Gabriel chuckled as he jabbed his thumb at the Peins. "Don't want Mr. Corpse Puppeteer to get ahold of that."

"Why did you bring them here?" Castiel hissed, getting up as the Winchesters got out of the Impala. "It's too dangerous for them."

"We'll talk about this later, hot pants." Gabriel said. "Don't we have a god complex to squish over there?"

"HOLD ON!" Naruto shouted. "I'm completely lost here! What the _hell_ just happened?!"

"An Archangel playing Trickster." Dean said gruffly, pulling out a pistol from trunk. "That's what happened, kid."

Pein, seeing the weapon, sent Chikushodo towards Dean. Chikushodo then began to wrestle with the shorter of the Winchester brothers. Sam ran over to help his brother deal with the Pein who was nearly choking his brother to death at this point.

Jigokudo was hoisted up by Shurado then thrown at Gabriel. Jigokudo put his hands in front of him, tackling the Archangel as he landed on top of him.

Castiel rushed towards the Pein that was attacking the Winchesters. He knew that the boys would not survive if Chikushodo summoned one of her beasts. Before he could even get close, the seraph found himself confronted with Shurado. Shurado held his Angel Blade tightly and went in for Castiel's gut, where his shared sight among the other Peins saw the Angel Tablet fly out of and be put back. Castiel guarded this region with his own blade. Seeing this, Shurado's head opened up, revealing a cannon, to which caused Castiel to give him a weird look. The angel knew that cannons could not possible fit there, but this world seemed to ignore that logic. Shurado fired his head cannon, sending Castiel back a few meters. Castiel got up quickly and blocked the next strike from the enemy's Angel Blade.

On the other side of the field, Dean was finally freed from Chikushodo's grasp when Sam took a risky gamble. He had pulled out a lighter and set the lone female Pein on fire. She quickly released her grip, but not from pain, but from necessity as a pile of ashes could not work with the chakra receiver piercings that adorned all of the Peins' bodies. The moment she let go, Sam chopped her head off with a machete. Both of the brothers gave weirded out/slightly freaked out looks at the decapitated head when they saw Chikushodo was glaring at them.

"Uh… Alright…" Dean said with a cringe.

Dean picked the head up by the hair and kept it at arm's length. Before he could toss it as far as he could, he got socked in the temple, knocking him out. The one who knocked out Dean was the Pein occupied by Gabriel (who appeared to be lying on the ground knocked out). Jigokudo picked up the head and body of Chikushodo and summoned, in Sam's opinion, a large, freaky head. Jigokudo tossed the two pieces into the head. The head chewed for a minute before spitting out a completely restored Chikushodo. She glared at Sam and summoned a massive centipede.

Sam gave a nervous look at the monstrous beast. He quickly picked up his brother and made a run for the Impala. He had no idea how to stop a centipede that was the size of a skyscraper, so he did the one thing he could do. He got himself and his brother into the car and began speeding in circles around the battlefield, hoping to tire the thing out.

Jiraiya and Naruto were facing off with the Tendo and Gakido Peins. Needles to say, they weren't having any luck with them like the rest of the others. Every time they tried to get close, they found themselves being sent back several meters by Tendo's Almighty Push or in Jiraiya's case, being grasped by Gakido and nearly get the chakra absorbed out of him. Thankfully, he managed to break free with the help of Shima and Fukasaku using their tongues to help make an opening.

Needless to say, the chaos was beyond anything that could be conceived by a sane mind. Left and right, Team Free Will plus others were being beaten to a pulp, knocked out, or chased around the battlefield by a monster centipede (Sam was wishing he had an equally massive can of Raid on him at this point).

Castiel saw this disaster. There was just too many Peins to deal with. When one of the Peins fell, Jigokudo would just summon a head and have the damaged Pein repaired (albeit one at a time). He knew that if the Shurado, Chikushodo, and Jigokudo Peins weren't taken out, they probably would not survive this battle.

Castiel reluctantly began to try to use the Angel Tablet's power augmenting properties. He looked up and glared at Shurado Pein (who had just missed Castiel with a missile a millisecond ago) and used his Grace to pull the Pein closer. Shurado struggled against the angelic-telepathy grip that was being used on him. He could not even summon his mechanical augmentations. Once he was less than an arm's length away, Castiel grabbed Shurado's forehead and a burst of very powerful white light exploded from Castiel's hand, causing Shurado to being disintegrating on the molecular level.

In under five seconds, Shurado was nothing more than a pile of ashes that Castiel quickly cleaned up with his enhanced reality warping. Once that was done, he panted. The amount of power he had used was massive and he was far from being used to expending so much.

At that moment, he heard Naruto scream. Castiel quickly looked in that direction and saw not only that one of the Peins had been turned into stone, but that Jiraiya had been hit by the missile that was meant for Castiel. The perverted Toad Sage was spurting blood from his mouth and oozing from where the missile had went right through him. Jiraiya collapsed on the ground, dead.

Naruto fell to the ground, feeling extreme distraught and anger. That anger bubbled and caused red bubbles to emerge from stomach. His eyes turned red and the whisker features thickened as his nails became more akin to claws. Castiel could feel the same evil that he had felt on the night of the full moon becoming more and more present. It was to the point as if it were it was overtaking Naruto's will and soul. However this was only took over the course of a brief millisecond, because the moment he was completely covered by the red bubbles, the evil energies exploded and became exponentially worse very rapidly. Where Naruto once stood was a dark red humanoid shape with fox ears, four flailing tails, white eyes, and a jagged mouth.

' _This is bad... I need to get Gabriel and the boys out of here._ ' Castiel thought.

With haste, Castiel flew to Gabriel's side, grabbed the unconscious archangel, and quickly flew into the Impala, catching Sam off guard. However, there was a familiar face next to Sam who was not shocked.

"Hey, Clarence."

"Cass! Don't do that!" Sam yelped.

"You need to get out of here, now." Castiel said.

"We're not going to leave you here alone!" Sam said.

"Don't worry about me. With Gabriel and Dean out of commission, you don't have have much in terms of assistance." Castiel pointed out. "It is becoming very unsafe by the second. The blonde haired kid, Naruto, he's been taken over by something. I don't have time to explain, but the energy is very wrathful and won't hesitate to harm allies. You won't be able to defend yourself and the car won't block any of the damages."

"Ya know, he does have a point." Meg said. "I can smell the hatred and it is so bad that even I want to puke. Too rich for any demon's tastes if you ask me..."

Sam jerked the Impala to the side as a piece of rubble nearly crashed into the car. He then put pressure on the accelerator, speeding up the Impala to dodge another piece that once was a building from hitting the back end.

"We aren't going to let you do this alone, Cass." Sam said. "We want to help."

"You don't understand. These humans are not like the ones you and your brother are. These humans evolved from what was intended of them. They have powers and skills that would make most monsters we know pale in comparison." Castiel pointed out. "If Gabriel or I die before any of you, there won't be anyone to bring you guys back. This world has been abandoned by angels for hundreds of years."

"I don't care, and I am sure Dean doesn't either." Sam protested. "We're going to help whether you like it or not. We are in this together, and always will be."

Castiel sighed. He knew that when it came to saving lives, the Winchesters never turned their backs and walked away when told to. They went in with everything they got to make sure everyone got out of harm's way safely.

"I think there are still people out in the rubble who are somewhat alive from the attack." Castiel said. "You and Meg can get them out of what used to be the village. Anywhere is safer than here. I will get rid of the animal summoner and the centipede so you can do it safely."

With that, Castiel left the Impala, leaving Gabriel's unconscious form behind. Sam, used to the disappearing acts, thought nothing of it and continued to drive around as the centipede fell over dead behind the Impala from Castiel smiting it. With the centipede gone, Sam then drove away from the battlefield to go look for survivors with Meg.

.

The situation was going beyond critical now. Naruto, when Castiel saw him at least two minutes ago, had four tails. Now he had six and the energy surrounding him was getting exponentially larger by the minute as the fox pumped more and more if his power into the boy. During this time, only Tendo Pein and Chikushodo Pein had survived the battle. All the other that weren't taken care of prior to Naruto losing himself to the Nine Tails, had been destroyed by the Nine Tails's chakra.

Castiel was about to go in head first to prevent this from escalating further than it needed to, Chikushodo got in his way. Knowing that Peins still wanted the Angel Tablet and the angel out of the way, Castiel bound the summoner with his telekinesis.

"Stop this foolishness now." Castiel said with authority. "You have no idea what you have just done and what you are getting yourself into."

"I know what I am doing." Pein said. "I am making this world a better place by erasing this village from the map and ridding it of you and your kind. You are the one who fails to understand."

"You call making a deal with Crowley making this world better?" Castiel asked, knowing from experience that Crowley is not a trustworthy ally but rather someone who would screw you over for his own benefit. "You call killing innocent lives making this world better?"

"Love breeds hatred. Hatred breeds anger. Anger breeds revenge. After that, the cycle begins again." Pein stated. "As long as villages like the Hidden Leaf exist, there will always be war. This needs to be done and those who die in our pursuit for a better world were well sacrificed and will be remembered."

Castiel had no idea what to say to that. Mostly due to the fact it was not very often he came across such people. People who did bad things to make everything better for everyone. Those who were well intentioned extremists. He wasn't offended, but he was very concerned. How this world had its ideas of right and wrong got so messed up, he had no idea and he thought the Primary Earth had messed up morals.

"You must hate me as well." Pein then said.

Castiel looked at Pein's Chikushodo body with an expression that was not expected by Pein at all. It was clearly shown to Castiel by the fact Chikushodo Pein cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

"I don't hate you." Castiel corrected. "I pity you."

With that, Castiel placed his hand on the Chikushodo Pein's forehead and in a burst of grace, the body fell limp on the ground, charred and unuseable by Pein as all the receivers adorning the body were destroyed, too.

Castiel gave one last sad look at the body Pein had used in front of him. The wounds here were very deep and would need a lot of care to repair.

' _I hope I am ready to do what is needed of me here._ ' Castiel thought.

He then turned his attention to the main event: Naruto versus Tendo Pein. So far, it had escalated even further as now Naruto was at eight tails with ninth one beginning to form and had grown a skeleton around the red mass of blood soiled energy. Since the seraph had never encountered anything like this, there was nothing he could do but stand and watch as the boy further lost himself to the fox with concern and sorrow.

Suddenly, pieces of rubble and chunks of earth began floating up towards a black ball of energy that had appeared in the sky. Castiel could feel the energy tugging him towards its epicenter quite violently. Castiel used his wings and all of the power that the Angel Tablet supplied him, trying to keep himself grounded. He then heard a scream.

Turning his head in the direction of the scream, Castiel saw a girl with purplish-blue hair wearing a lavender hoodie being picked by the sphere. Without wasting a beat, Castiel flew to her and held on to her, keeping her safely on the ground.

"Thank you, sir." the girl said. "I need to get to Naruto. I have to help him."

"It's not safe right now." Castiel replied. "If you go out there, you will die."

"I love him…" the girl said.

"That's okay." Castiel stated. "He is currently in a lot of distress right now. If you die, the situation will get worse. I have seen it happen numerous times."

The girl didn't object. Instead, she looked at the events happening in front of her with great sadness. Tears poured from her eyes as her large heart ached for the boy she had a crush on. She wanted to show Naruto that everything would be alright in the end.

' _Oh Naruto, I love you so much..._ ' the girl thought. ' _I know you can do this._ '

Without warning, the massive sphere covered in chunks of dirt, rocks, and other things exploded. Castiel quickly teleported himself and the girl out of the way of a massive boulder. Turns out, the power that was outside of Naruto's body now was too much for the sphere that Pein had created. The sphere dissolved as the fox's energy around Naruto dissolved as well, returning him back to normal and in full control. The girl sighed in relief as Castiel released her from the safety of his grip.

Castiel watched as the girl's veins around her eyes were beginning to bulge. He quickly stopped her before her eyes could activate the Byakugan.

"Don't use your Byakugan, Hinata." Castiel warned the girl (Hinata), making her jump a bit. "I am positive if you turn that on and look at me, you will go blind or possibly die. An Uchiha already used his on me and was blinded by it."

Hinata nodded and kept her Byakugan off, squinting her eyes, doing her best to watch the fight going on in the distance between Naruto and Pein. From what she could make out, the fight was very intense and there was one instance where she could see Naruto throw something that looked like chakra in the shape of a shuriken.

Suddenly, Hinata felt Castiel touching her head and she could see what was going on in the battle with more clarity than what her Byakugan could ever give her. She gasped with amazement as she watched the battle. While yes, it was the fact that she could see it so perfectly that astounded her, it was also the fact that Naruto was still going strong against Pein. There was a break where Pein asked Naruto about peace, the battle was very heavy, especially when Naruto's shadow clones came out from the rubble and prepared to pummel the remaining Pein into the ground. But that was useless as Pein easily repelled them with Almighty Push. However, that was not the real attack. The clones barraging him was a distraction. The real attack came in the form of Naruto shoving a Rasengan into Pein's torso. He then shattered the receivers that Gabriel told him about on Mount Myoboku rendering the final Pein unuseable.

Seeing as the battle was done, Castiel took Hinata to Naruto via "Air Angel" as Dean once joking referred to his teleportation. She leaped and gave Naruto a big hug and began to cry out of happiness.

"I'm so glad you're alright." Hinata sobbed. "I love you so much and I was so worried."

Naruto hugged her back, accepting Hinata's feelings for him. But after a few seconds, he let go.

"I love you too, but there is something I need to do first." Naruto said. "I need to find the real Pein. He told me that if I wanted to talk to him that I would have to find the real him, but I am not sure where to look."

"I might be able to help." Hinata spoke up. "Castiel, I know you said that using my Byakugan around you could be dangerous, but I have to use it. There is a blind spot on the back of my neck above the first thoracic vertebra, if you stand there, I won't be able to see you."

Castiel nodded as he positioned himself in said blind spot. Once he told Hinata he was there, Hinata then activated her Byakugan and began to look everywhere while not moving her head.

"I see something." Hinata said. "It is a tree made out of sheets of paper being held together by chakra. I see two people inside it. One of them is attached to a huge mechanical chair. I think we should check it out."

"Okay, let's get going." Naruto said.

WIth that, Naruto, Hinata, and Castiel began to look for the paper tree. Castiel fanned out his grace, using it to help sense two souls within a very small distance. Hinata, with her Byakugan deactivated, led the way as she knew the direction the paper tree was in. After about an hour of looking for it, and telling villagers (who wanted to help kill Pein) not to follow them, they had found the paper tree. One by one, the three of them entered.

What they saw was a red haired, malnourished man and Konan. Konan held a disapproving look at the trio while the red haired man looked exhausted and fragile. This was something that Naruto ignored for all he could see was someone who took away almost everything he cherished.

"Do you hate me?" the red haired man asked. "Do you want your revenge?"

Castiel tilted his head like a clueless puppy, unsure why he would ask something like that again. Hinata stood back, knowing that this was something that Naruto had to do himself.

Konan spoke up, "If you kill Nagato, all you will accomplish is satisfying yourself and nothing else."

"There is nothing you two can do besides giving yourself up to our goals." Nagato, the redhead, said. "That is the correct answer to bringing peace to everyone."

With little warning, two chakra receivers were fired, one impaling Naruto in the torso, away from vital organs such as the heart. Castiel on the other hand, caught the receiver, and turned it into ashes with the power of the Angel Tablet, stunning Konan, Nagato, and Hinata.

' _He caught it with his bare hand and destroyed it with a thought!_ ' Konan thought as a bead of sweat traveled down her face. ' _That's impossible!_ '

Konan looked at Nagato, who also looked more surprised than before. Konan followed his eyes to the direction he was looking in and saw Naruto was resisting Nagato's control with some of Nine Tails's chakra, which made Castiel feel a bit uncomfortable. Naruto pulled out the receiver, alleviating some of the discomfort he was feeling himself.

"That was on purpose…" Nagato trailed off in a whisper.

"We came here to talk." Naruto spoke up, with a small trail of blood slipping past his lips. "Thought I came here to figure something out as well."

"And what is that?" Nagato asked.

No words were exchanged for a minute. Tension could smelled by those with the dullest of smell. Then Naruto finally broke the silence.

"I wanted to know… How I would I feel if I saw you." Naruto said as he trembled with anger. "And I can't forgive you for what you have done! I want to kill you so badly!"

Naruto lunged at Nagato with a raised fist and killing intention. Castiel was about to restrain the blondie when Naruto froze in front of the crippled man. The blonde stayed that way for a minute, shaking a bit.

"Pervy Sage said that there would be a day where everyone would understand each other. He believed it would happen." Naruto spoke once more. "He told me that I wasn't listening to him. He wanted me to find an answer, and I was glad to have his approval. Now I know what he meant and what he wanted and it is very difficult."

"And that doesn't change the fact that you don't forgive me or the fact that Castiel pities me." Nagato pointed out, with the mention of Castiel's pity towards the redhead garnering a frown from Naruto.

"You _pity_ him? Why!?" Naruto asked, unable to believe what he heard.

"He is trying but failing to do good and I have been there." Castiel said looking a bit sad. "Before the Leviathan escaped from inside me, I used their power to kill thousands of my brothers and sisters because they followed Raphael and attempted to restart the Apocalypse. After that, I began killing people who I deemed abominations. My friends might have not forgiven me at first, but they do now. And I forgive you."

Nagato stared at the angel. Once more, Castiel was peculiar. Doing things that no shinobi in their right frame of mind would do. Naruto was just as baffled, giving him a look that anyone who experienced a massive mind screw would know how to pull off.

"You only forgive me because you have taken similar actions?" Nagato asked.

"No. I also forgive you because it something that my Father tried teaching all of his creations." Castiel replied and followed up with a quote. " _But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you_."

"Love your enemies?" Nagato asked, with it rolling off his tongue as if it were a joke worthy of headbanging against a wall. "That is more naive than anything Jiraiya-sensei has ever thought about. How can you show love to someone who takes away your family, your home, and your friends?"

"Yeah, what he said." Naruto replied, a bit surprised he actually agreed with Nagato.

Castiel frowned. This was something he was not very amused with. This was a sad and pitiful situation he was not in the mood for. It was as bad as the time he tried teach poetry to fish back when the world was first made. Except this time, he was trying to tell humans, a species that was known for having love within their souls, how to love one another.

"You start by forgiving them for their sins, regardless of what you categorize them as. My Father does not give ranking to whatever atrocities you commit, whether they be mass murder or telling a small, insignificant lie." Castiel said as if it were common knowledge. "You may never see eye to eye or like them, but forgiving anyone for their wrong doings lifts a huge weight off of your shoulders. If you don't forgive, you will never heal."

Naruto and Nagato stared at each other a bit, doing their best to wrap their heads around a foreign concept. Konan frowned at Castiel, not needing words to communicate how this all felt worthless in a world where it was kill or be killed on a daily basis.

"I will think about it, but I want to hear your story first." Naruto said.

"Very well." Nagato said, closing his eyes for a brief second, trying to calm himself a bit to prepare himself for the painful memories.

Nagato told his story. How he was just a young boy with two civilian parents who were trying to survive during the hard times of the second shinobi war. How their house was intruded by Leaf Ninja in the middle of the night and tried to escape for on his parents to die due to bumping into a small desk near the kitchen the shinobi were ransacking for food. How he accidentally killed the invaders with his out of control powers. How he nearly starved to death and found Chibi, a dog who refused to leave his side until his death out of sheer compassion and love for someone who was to become his new owner. How he met his friends Yahiko and Konan when he was on the brink of death. How they survived through stealing food from those who had plenty to spare but refused to share. How Yahiko developed his dream to become a god so he could change the world for the better. How they met the Legendary Sannin. How Nagato felt guilty for killing their assailant when they tried to kill Yahiko. How Jiraiya taught them ninjutsu (which in Nagato's opinion, was to gain better control of his Rinnegan). How they all got along and made Jiraiya proud. And how Yahiko lost his life when Hanzo threatened to kill Konan and everyone who was apart of the original Akatsuki, which was back then an organization that was pure and was full of good people. How Nagato lost his mobility when summoning the Gedo Statue out of a fit of rage and killing Hanzo's men. How he then got revenge when he started a civil war to free his home village from Hanzo. How he and Konan met Madara and were promised a way to create peace in the world and the corrupted rebirth of the Akatsuki.

At the end of the story, Naruto looked a bit sad. The suffering that someone he hated was more than he could imagine. It was a lot, and with Castiel's words of love ringing in his head along to the sad backstory, he couldn't help but shed a small, hard-to-see tear.

"So what is your answer?" Nagato asked.

Naruto pulled out a book that Jiraiya had given him as a congratulations gift on Mount Myoboku for mastering Sage Jutsu: The Tales of Gutsy Shinobi. He had not finished reading it yet, but the parts he had read had made an impact as well.

"I understand you now. I think you're right." Naruto began as he held the book. "I am not sure if it will make any difference, but I will try to forgive you. I just can't right now. However, my answer is that I will not give up on Pervy Sage's word. I believe in what he said."

"Very well." Nagato said. "I won't kill any of you. But you expect us to sit here to wait for you to bring peace to us all!? It's too late for me to believe in what Jiraiya-sensei said! There is no real peace in this accursed world!"

"Then I will find a way to end that curse." Naruto proclaimed. "If there is a such thing as peace, I will find it."

"And I will do my best to rectify the mistakes my siblings have made by neglecting this world." Castiel said.

"We won't give up."

Nagato looked at Naruto with shock, gaining Konan's attention.

"Nagato, what's wrong?"

"Those words…" Nagato said as if he had heard them long ago.

Naruto showed the book he was holding to Nagato.

"...Were from this book. The first one Jiraiya ever wrote." Naruto finished and flipped to the about the author section. "He wrote it so that it would help change the world. In the book, he said that the end was inspired by you, Nagato."

"What? That has to be a coincidence." Nagato said, still not believing it.

"And the main character's name is," Naruto began, thinking of what Jiraiya had told him about the creation of the story, "Naruto. My name is a precious memento to him and I won't give up and stomp on it! I will become Hokage, and I will make sure the Hidden Rain has peace! Believe it!"

Nagato was at a loss of words. What Naruto had said impacted him in a way he could not question. He was indeed the child of prophecy. He was not sure what Castiel meant for the world, but he was certain that his role was important too as he had helped remind him of love and forgiveness (the latter that his parents had taught him), even if he didn't want to accept it.

"You're an odd kid. You remind me of when I was your age." Nagato said.

"Nagato…" Konan trailed off.

"I couldn't believe in what Jiraiya believed or Jiraiya himself." Nagato continued, "But you choose a different path. I can see a path to a different future within you both." the redhead then formed a hand seal, shocking Konan who knew what he was about to do, "I will believe in you two. GEDO ART OF RINNE REBIRTH."

"Nagato!-" Konan shouted out of concern.

"Konan, it's enough." Nagato said. "I have a new choice, my last one."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

Konan sighed then said, "He who controls the RInnegan is said is a master of the Six Peins' justsu. They say he is outside of life and death. Nagato is the seventh Pein and is able to control life and death."

The ground shook in the distance. Hinata quickly turned so that Castiel was in her blind spot and activated her Byakugan. What she saw took her breath away.

"The dead…" Hinata began. "They are coming back to life!"

' _So this is what Gabriel meant by constant resurrections..._ ' Castiel thought as he felt the air outside become full of human souls returning to their bodies.

.

The Winchester brothers and Meg watched in awe as souls flowed out of what Dean (who was now awake) called "a freaky ass head" that came out of the ground. One by one, the dead began to rise as their souls returned. From the Winchester's experiences with soulless people, they didn't die unless it was due to a hellhound ripping it out of them. The fact that the souls here were linked to their lives was weird for them.

"Looks like Cass did something." Dean said. "I don't know how he did it, but man he saved more lives than I count right now."

"Yeah, he sure did." Sam said, shielding his eyes from the sunlight.

Gabriel, who also woke up from his bruising session, poked one of the souls with a mischievous smile. The soul flinched a bit before continuing its journey back to its body. Sam gave the archangel a peculiar look.

"Stop that." Sam said.

"Who died and made you boss?" Gabriel asked childishly and poked another soul.

Sam rolled his eyes and went back to watching the hundreds of souls flying through the air. As he was watching, he noticed a familiar cloak. The taller of the brothers shook the shorter one's shoulder.

"What is it, Sammy?" Dean asked.

"Look." Sam said pointing in the distance.

"Well son of a b**ch." Dean said, not liking the sight of that cloak. "Looks like Cass missed one of those d*****bag's Walking Dead rejects."

Dean quickly grabbed a pistol from the trunk and with Sam (who was armed with Ruby's knife), rushed in the direction of the cloaked figure. When they got there, they saw that the cloaked figure had long black hair and was touching the ground, digging a small hole.

"Hey, asshat!" Dean called out as he aimed at the raven haired man. "Stop digging in the dirt! Just how the hell did you survive?"

The man did not reply, instead he looked over his shoulder at the boys. His eyes were normal, dark colored eyes, not the weird, rippled purple eyes that the Peins had.

"Because I was healed." the man said and went back to making a hole in the ground.

"Who healed you?" Sam asked.

The man once more didn't reply. Instead, he picked up a large wooden beam that was lying in the debris and stuck it into the hole he made.

"Hey, just what do you think you're doing?!" Dean asked.

"That is none of your concern." the man replied taking off his cloak and ring.

The man threw his cloak on beam and placed the ring in the cloak's inner pocket. He then stepped backwards, causing more tension to arise from the brothers.

"FIREBALL JUTSU." The man said, setting his cloak on fire.

"What did you just do?" Sam asked.

"I quit the Akatsuki." The man stated bluntly as he faced the brothers and disappeared in a burst of crows. "That is all you need to know."

The crows flew into the Winchesters' faces. They tried swatting the birds away, but that didn't work. Once the parcel of crows were gone, all that was left of the man's presence was the burning cloak on a stake and a lone crow that was perched near it.

"Okay." Dean said. "This world, is too weird for me! And we hunt monsters! People don't just go turn into a bunch of freakin' birds like that or spit fire as if it were nothing!"

"I don't know, Dean." Sam said. "According to Cass, the people here evolved differently from us. Not sure how that equals these crazy abilities, but maybe this is their normal."

"Their normal my ass!" Dean retorted. "This one giant mind screw! Why Cass had to ever chose to hide in a place like this, I will never understand! This world has more messed up crap than I have ever seen!"

Sam sent a look at Dean then sighed, "Let's just go find Cass."

"Yeah, so we can get out of this hellhole!" Dean said as he and his brother began walking.

.

Castiel, Naruto, and Hinata looked at Nagato and Yahiko's bodies as Konan covered them up with paper so she could carry them with ease.

"You are taking him with you?" Naruto asked.

"Yahiko's corpse was used for the Tendo Pein." Konan said sadly. "He was very special to us."

"What about you? I don't want to think you'd just return to the Akatsuki." Naruto replied.

"I'm done with the Akatsuki." Konan said. "Yahiko and Nagato were everything to me. They entrusted their dreams to you. Since Nagato believed in you, I will too. The Hidden Rain will help you make that dream come true."

"The name Naruto, and the guts to not give up." Naruto said. "That's what my master and fellow pupil have given me."

Konan didn't say anything or change her expression. Instead she lift her hand and summoned her paper to form a flower bouquet out of the sheets. She handed the bouquet to Naruto.

"I hope for you these will be flowers of hope that will never die." Konan said.

Naruto took the bouquet with a smile.

As Konan was about to leave, Castiel appeared in front of her, and the sudden appearance failed to startle her.

"Wait." Castiel said. "There's something I want to do for you, but I will need you to set the bodies of your friends down."

Konan raised an eyebrow, but none of the less, carefully set her friends' bodies down. Castiel walked over to Nagato's body and placed a hand on it. With a small breath, a burst of grace flooded the body. Konan watched as Nagato's withered muscles were rebuilt and no longer did he look crippled and fragile. He looked healthy once more. She gasped as she heard him moan and saw his hair go from white (caused by the jutsu he had casted to revive the village) back to red.

Nagato's eyes fluttered open and he saw Castiel hovering over him, He could feel Castiel's hand on his forehead and the energy that the angel was pouring into him to revive and heal him. Nagato was shocked to see the angel revive someone like himself.

"I guess you really did forgive me." Nagato said weakly.

"Just rest." Castiel said as he removed his hand from Nagato's forehead. "Even though I resurrected you and rebuilt your muscles, I am not sure how much energy I have left, despite the Angel Tablet providing me with some extra power."

Castiel then moved on to Yahiko's body. And the seraph began to resurrect him too. Just like Konan, Nagato, Hinata, and Naruto watched in awe as Yahiko's body no longer looked dead, but became more and more like it was alive with every second of healing grace being poured into him. They then saw Yahiko sit up rapidly, startling Naruto. Yahiko looked around, no longer having the Rinnegan but rather normal blue eyes, highly confused by his currently location

"What happened? Where are we?" Yahiko asked, "Where's Hanzo?"

"Yahiko, a lot has happened since you died." Konan said, kneeling next to her once dead friend.

"I knew I died, but how long?" Yahiko asked and looked at Castiel. "And who's this guy?"

"I'm Castiel, and I am an Angel of the Lord." Castiel said. "I am the one who revitalized you."

"But why?" Yahiko asked.

"Because it is the least I can do for you three." Castiel replied. "Nagato and Konan along with Itachi were not evil like the others in the Akatsuki were."

Yahiko looked very lost and turned his attention to Konan and Nagato. They knew a bit more of what Castiel was talking about. At the same time, Hinata and Naruto held the same confusion. Sure Naruto was aware that Itachi loved his brother still, but he was the most confusing member the blonde had ever seen.

"What do you mean by Itachi not being like the others?" Konan asked.

"He still cares about his brother and was the only one who didn't attack me on sight." Castiel said. "I healed him so that way he could be there for his brother."

"Um guys, could someone explain something to me?" Yahiko asked.

"We will tell you everything once we get back to the Hidden Rain." Nagato croaked out, still very surprised his long dead friend was alive next to him.

"Thank you, Castiel." Konan said, standing up. "You are a true angel."

Castiel tilted his head, confused why she would say that when she already knew he was. Konan formed a paper angel and gave it to Castiel. Castiel held the origami angel with curiosity.

"May this be an angel of healing to you." Konan said.

With that, Konan and Yahiko helped Nagato get on his feet. Nagato, due to years of being a paraplegic, found standing on his now functional legs really awkward. He nearly slipped a few times.

"Easy there." Yahiko said, catching Nagato before he could fall over.

With a wordless goodbye, Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato left back for their village. As soon as the three Hidden Rain Shinobi left, Naruto, Hinata, and Castiel were surrounded by the once dead Hidden Leaf Villagers who cheered for them. Naruto got lifted up into the air and tossed around by them out of happiness. Naruto was accepted. Then up went Hinata and Castiel. Hinata nearly fainted due to how overwhelming the experience was. Castiel was confused to why the villagers had begun tossing him as well.

"Cass, what the hell?" a familiar voice asked.

Castiel looked up and saw Dean, Sam, Meg, and Gabriel standing there. Okay, Gabriel didn't really stand there. He immediately flew up into the air and screamed "mosh pit", hijacking the cheerful tossing of the heroes in an attempt to crowdsurf. Meg laughed when the villagers dropped the archangel by accident.

"Sorry, but you don't go hijacking mosh pits, tree topper." Meg chuckled.

"Oh be quiet." Gabriel retorted as he got up and looked at his brother, "Hey bro, how do you like all of this hero worship?"

"I don't like it. It's really weird and uncomfortable." Castiel stated as he got off the mosh pit.

"Okay, so are we going to leave this place or keep on chatting until we die?" Dean asked.

"Dean, I can't leave." Castiel said. "This Earth has been neglected for far too long. Until we can get a few angel garrisons here, I am the only one aside from Gabriel who can even come here to take care of it."

"You plan on babysitting this place?" Dean asked.

"It's the least I can do." Castiel said. "This is something I need to do. It will allow me to achieve penance for everything I have done."

"Cass, look, we need you too buddy." Dean said. "Not that Gabriel has not been any help," Dean shot a glare at the offending archangel, who gave an innocent look as he sucked on a lollipop, "But we still need you. Your like the brother we never had."

"There's nothing I can do as long as all of the angels are banished from Heaven and Metatron is around." Castiel pointed out. "And thanks to Abaddon, we know that will take longer."

"Actually…" Gabriel spoke up, "I took care of Abaddon while your boyfriends were in my little training time loop. I saw that they were screwing up every single time they got to fake!Abaddon, so I got off my ass and stuck her Care Bear land and it was not easy, I tell you. Hopefully that holds her."

Dean and Sam gave Gabriel a look.

"So we did all of that for nothing?!" Dean asked. "You're such a d**k! A big ass, fluffy winged d**k!"

"You're welcome." Gabriel retorted.

"So, if Abaddon is not around anymore," Castiel began, "Does that mean Metatron can be taken out?"

"Yes, it does, Cassy." Gabriel said. "However, there is the little war between our brethren on our Earth right now. If we want to give Metatron the boot, we need to be careful. Just because I am an archangel doesn't mean I can handle millions of my siblings all at once. Hell, Nagato even got the jump on me and only Luci has ever been able to do that to me!"

"What if we lure him somewhere like here?" Sam suggested.

"Oh hell no, I am not staying here for more than I have to!" Dean protested. "In case if you forgotten, Gabe, me and Sammy can't defend ourselves like we usually can here! That Pein guy nearly killed me with that punch and summoned a big freakin' millipede!"

"It was a centipede, Dean." Sam corrected.

"Same freakin' thing." Dean retorted. "My point is, we deal with monsters, not mutants! We ain't Agents of Shield or the X-Men, ya know!"

"Luring him might work." Gabriel said. "But I do see your point, Deano." Gabriel began to struggle keeping a straight face, "You two are wimps..."

Dean tried to tackle the now laughing archangel, who merely teleported out of Dean's way. Dean shot a nasty glare.

"Care to say that again?" Dean asked.

"Yes." Gabriel said. "Wiiiiiiiiiiimps!"

"Enough you two." Sam snapped. "Is there anything you can do to help us at least stand a fighting chance here? Just long enough to draw out Metatron and take care of him."

"Maybe." Gabriel said. "But should I? I mean, Sam, you two have a bad track record with shooting first and asking questions later. Doing that here is going to get you higher priority capture alerts than what the FBI could ever wish achieving. What's going to stop you from say, murdering two misguided ninjas here? Or even better, ticking off a Jinchuriki. This world plays by a different set of rules, boys. You either follow them, or die at the hands of a bounty hunter who only cares about money, not your title as the two stopped the Apocalypse."

"Okay, we get it." Dean said.

"Are you sure?" Gabriel asked. "Last I checked, you two were refusing to learn your lessons, especially you, Mr. I-Will-Sell-My-Soul-To-Save-My-Brother-Until-Death-Gets-Fed-Up-With-His-Favorite-Gag."

"Okay, was the absurdly long-winded nickname really necessary?" Dean asked.

"Uh, ya." Gabriel said. "Nothing seems to really stick in your little noggins other than bad nicknames and tv references. So until you two are a little more well behaved, I think I will ditch ya here like this while I go doing something useful. Bye!"

With a snap of his fingers, Gabriel disappeared, leaving the Winchesters, Meg, and Castiel behind. Dean was seething with anger. Of all of the things Gabriel had done to tick the brothers off, this had to be one of the worst in his opinion.

"Dean, calm down." Sam said.

"Calm down?!" Dean shouted. "That little archd***he just stranded us here with no way back!"

"I know that." Sam said. "Come on, let's just do what we can while we are here to help, right Cass."

"I am not very enthused by my brother's decision, but maybe you can be of assistance here." Castiel said. "Follow me, there is someone who you would need to talk to in order to begin."

With that, the brothers followed Castiel. Dean still swearing like a sailor over Gabriel's little stunt.


	12. Captivity

Binas: Welcome back. Here is some more craziness, which I could use after a bout of depression hit me. I blame the fact I had three different infections in the span of a month and had to use three different antibiotics (one of them being used twice, which I protested against) just to get rid of the infections.

This chapter's song is "S'en Aller" by the fictional band, the Subdigitals.

Another thing regarding to this chapter, Jiraiya and Deidara are alive as they were considered as Leaf inhabitants. The latter because he has no memories, and Nagato found going after an amnesiac pointless. On the other hand, Kisame, Hidan, and Kakuzu are dead and were collected by Konan for proper burial. Also, Tsunade is awake thanks to Cass.

FluffySheepPen: Oh, you're right… Ugh… I didn't know that prior to reading your review. [ _headbangs desk._ ] Sorry about that… I wish I could go fix that, but that would change way too much of the story than I am willing to. I will say that the Rinnegan in my story does not see energy flow in someone's body (or vessel) automatically like the Sharingan and Byakugan unless that specific ability is being consciously used.

Interviner: Yeah, I wasn't expecting myself to write them a bigger role in the beginning myself. But things happen.

.

.

 _Flashback; about a week before the Pein Invasion…_

Sasuke was sweating profusely on the straw mat he was laying on. His muscles tensing at every single sensation around him as his chakra burned inside his body. To be more precise, his shoulder where the curse mark was. Jugo, Suigetsu, and Karin looked over him with concern, wondering what was happening.

"This is not good." Karin stated as she glided her hand over Sasuke's body with a delicate flow of chakra emanating from the appendage. "He's getting worse; we have to take him to the nearest village."

"Can't you just make him bite you?" Suigetsu asked.

"I could if he weren't passed out cold like this!" Karin shouted and threw her fist at Suigetsu, only for her hand to go through the boy's now liquified body. "He is losing water fast and I don't have the equipment needed to rehydrate him."

"I bet I could rehydrate him better than you could anyways." Suigetsu mocked with a cheeky grin.

"I dare you to say that again!" Karin hissed while shaking her fist in anger.

"Guys, calm down." Jugo said. "Fighting won't help him right now."

Before anyone could reply, Sasuke's curse mark flared to life, turning a reddish-orange color. Then snakes began pouring out of it, freaking out Suigetsu and Karin the most. With every snake that emerged, a bigger one would follow until a single large snake towered over the three teens. The snake began to gag and cough up the last face anyone expected: Orochimaru. Karin nearly barfed from the snake affiliated man's grand entrance. With only adrenaline pouring through him, Suigetsu quickly pulled out the Executioner's Blade and hacked the snakes off of Sasuke's shoulder in two clean sweeps. The stump evaporated to reveal a blemish, curse mark free shoulder as the entirety of the curse mark had been used for Orochimaru's come back.

The giant snake tumbled over onto the ground, causing a large plume of dirt to rise, providing a smoke screen. When the dirt cleared, Orochimaru stood next to the dead snake calmly with his signature smirk dominating his features. However it only lasted for a few seconds as he then raised an eyebrow. Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo had fled with Sasuke's body while the dust cloud was present. He pursed his lips a bit, not expecting them to having escape as their first go to choice. Then his smirk returned a short moment later. He figured he could use a bit of entertainment since he felt a bit bored while he was trapped within Sasuke's mind. Maybe he could pick up on a few things that he missed as well.

.

 _Present day…_

Dean leaned against a tree in the forest that was not destroyed in the invasion, still sulking. He was still rightfully ticked off that Gabriel decided to dump him, his brother, and Meg in a foreign land where people could shoot fireballs as casually as men held long distance peeing contests in the high school boy's locker room, more often than not, peeing everywhere but in the urinal/toilet.

"I'm gonna thump that d**chebag if it's the last thing I ever do." Dean muttered under his breath, glaring over his shoulder as a new building rose from the ground thanks to Yamato's wood release.

Footsteps came closer to Dean, causing him to adopt more vigilance of his surroundings. While the inhabitants were willing to accept the presence of the three new arrivals, Dean did not trust them in return. He felt threatened at every turn because he knew that he could be killed with relative ease by these people.

The older Winchester turned to the direction where he heard footsteps coming from and was relieved to see that it was just Sam, who was holding two skins of water.

"Don't do that to me, Sam!" Dean exclaimed.

"Sorry." Sam said passing his extra water skin to Dean, who examined it. "Dude, it's not poisoned. I checked."

Dean sniffed the water with wariness before taking a small test sip of the water. He tasted it a bit, and once he confirmed no suspicious flavors were in the skin, Dean guzzled about an eighth of the water skin's contents. It wasn't as good as beer, but it would help him along until he could get his fix and hopefully drink out of what he considered his "crazy hallucinogenic mushroom induced dream".

"Dean, just try to be less antagonistic about this." Sam stated. "Maybe being here would do us some good."

"What good could possible come from this freakin' mess?" Dean asked, looking at Sam as if he grew a second head. "Our home could be teetering towards _another_ apocalypse right now and we're right here, in a dumbass forest in a dumbass world, drinking water from animal skins!" Dean held up his water skin for emphasis.

"I mean we can actually think about the situation back at home without cases getting in the way." Sam cleared up. "Think of it, have we even been able to get any idea on how to deal with Metatron and the angels going to civil war with Abaddon and other things that go bump in the night breathing down our necks? We've barely figured out how to reverse Metatron's spell, and we have Gabriel to thank for what we do know. He's out there right now risking his neck trying to gather as much information as he can without being caught. He doesn't have time to pull us out of danger like Cass does."

Dean frowned a bit, wondering how Sam could draw the assumption that Gabriel was looking out for them while he was being an absolute d**k by dumping them in this crazy world. Sam, seeing the look on Dean's face, sighed.

"Look," Sam began, "Gabriel's not like the other archangels. He's not condescending nor does he hate humans. He even gave us the information we needed to lock up Lucifer when the Apocalypse first came around. If he didn't care about us or anyone for that matter, he wouldn't have told us about the Four Horsemen Rings."

"Alright, I will give this world one chance to prove that it's not some sort of crappy hell hole." Dean stated, raising a single finger. "If it does anything that I don't like, then I'm getting on the next train out of Funky Town."

With that, Dean stood up completely and stretched a bit, popping a few joints. Then a mist began to settle in, making him feel a bit sleepy. He looked over to find that Sam looked ready to topple over.

"What the hell?" Dean asked as he rubbed his droopy eyes. "Where's this freakin' mist coming from?"

A thud sounded, causing Dean to jerk a bit. Sam had passed out from the gases in the mist and before Dean knew it, he had joined Sam into a dark, quiet slumber right next to a now empty can with a nozzle for releasing gas.

.

Castiel helped Yamato to his feet as what could have been the fifth house in succession to go up thanks to Yamato's wood style. Yamato looked drained and was on the verge of passing out from the overuse of his chakra.

"I think that's enough wood erection for now." Meg commented with a bit of a smirk. "I think Clarence and I can get the rest of this neighborhood."

Castiel gave a bit of a confused look. Rarely had he seen the demon being kind to a random person she barely knew. Sure, she had commented that she had a bit of good in her, but he had never considered it affecting her this much. It was weird, but in a good way. It meant that she was still a friend and a few other things that only Castiel himself knew.

Yamato nodded, and got back on his feet. He then walked off to find somewhere to rest and recover his chakra so he could continue help rebuild the village.

Meg picked up a large plank of wood from the cart that Yamato had created earlier and thrust it into one of the recently finished foundations with her demonic strength, startling some of the nearby civilians who were also working on rebuilding other sections of the village.

"Uh, miss?" one villager asked, eyeing the impaled foundation nervously, "Are you sure you know how to build a house?"

"As sure as I know how to be a good little demon for the good little villager." Meg said as she let her eyes flicker to black long enough for the villager to notice and walk away shivering.

About an hour or two later of attempting to build a house, Meg and Castiel had finished. Needless to say, it looked horrible; worse than what a first year construction student could pull off. It was basically a two meter high wooden box that had been thrusted into stone with very little features aside from square holes and a very, very simple looking door that only used hinges and a plank of wood.

When Yamato came by to check on the two, he was shocked at what he saw. He looked at Castiel and Meg, to which the former looked very confused and the latter who was just smiling.

Yamato sighed and said, "Why don't you two find something else to do?"

Meg shrugged and took Castiel's hand before taking off. Castiel now knew what Meg was doing and he was pretty sure that it had to do with their promise to "move furniture around" if the twinkle in Meg's eye was anything to go by. Too bad they couldn't exactly order pizza the way people did. Instead, they would have to make it, which might be even better. After all, making a pizza was easier than making a house.

.

Dean's vision slowly returned to him as he began to awaken from his gas induced sleep. Once his vision fully returned, he realized he was in a very dim, damp cell and was bound by iron shackles to the wall (which had meter long chains to allow some movement).

Dean tugged on the chains that bound his wrists, finding that they were mostly secure in the old wall.

"Sam?" Dean shouted as he squinted his eyes, trying to see in the poorly lit cell "Can you hear me?" No response. "Sammy! … Son of a b****!"

The sound of footsteps echoed from a distance away and steadily got closer and closer. Dean saw a silhouette of a person holding the unconscious body of his brother. The cell door opened and Dean tried to make a run for the figure to beat up who he was pretty sure the one who captured him and his brother. However, the chains were not long enough for him to complete his current wish. He wound up falling flat on his face instead, causing the figure to let out a rather creepy, psychotic, light chuckle, identifying the figure as a male. The figure walked over to a set of chains and began shackling Sam was carrying to them.

"You should rest," the figure said with a smooth, chilling voice that sent shivers down Dean's neck, "I don't want one of my test subjects lessening his chances of survival."

Dean gave a horrified look at the figure, wondering if someone slipped a mickey into his water earlier.

"Just who the hell are you, you sick b******?" Dean asked, his voice laced in disgust. "What did you do to Sam?!"

"My name is Orochimaru," the figure said, getting close enough to Dean to show what he looked like completely, followed by stroking Dean's chin, causing great discomfort in the older Winchester, "You two are one of the greats anomalies I have ever seen. To live with no chakra running through your bodies and have no side effects; it is something that should be impossible."

Orochimaru then licked his own face with his freakishly long tongue, causing Dean to gag a bit on his own vomit.

"Go burn in Hell, sicko." Dean spat with a highly disgusted cringe on his visage. "And take that freaky, long ass tongue with you!"

"And not learn more about your conditions?" Orochimaru asked. "You two could open doors to new territory; techniques that are unheard of. Well, that is if you survive."

"Tell me what you did to Sam, now!" Dean shouted.

"Oh and ruin the surprise?" Orochimaru asked with a twisted smirk. "You'll find out soon; after all, you will be getting the same tests right now."

With that, Dean found a sedative needle in his arm. He began fighting to stay awake, but the drug was too strong and he fell into a deep sleep.

.

After days of running, Karen, Suigetsu, and Jugo came into viewing range of Uree-Mura. It was a good sign for Sasuke's well being. It meant that the Hidden Leaf Village was not too far away now. While the group had initially fought over if it was a good idea to take Sasuke's back to the village he had defected from, it became apparent that they would be risking Sasuke's deteriorating health as none of the villages could claim they had someone in the same caliber as Tsunade, the one who could dare to do delicate life saving procedures.

At that moment, a little girl ran up to the group. She then spotted Sasuke's limp form and said, "You can lay him down in our home."

"Sorry, kid, but Sasuke needs a doctor not a bed." Suigetsu said.

"But I can pray for someone to come and make him better." the girl said.

Karin made a face while Suigetsu barked out a laugh. Jugo remained silent, not really sure how to respond to such optimism.

"That's cute." Suigetsu remarked, wiping a faux tear from his eye. "Now get out of our way."

The girl refused. Instead she spoke to seemingly no one, "Castiel, there's a boy who needs you. He won't wake up and will die if no one helps him."

Suigetsu was pretty much getting at the end of his rope. Before he could even grasp his Executioner's Blade, the sound of feathers ruffling tickled everyone's ears. The girl smiled and greeted the new arrival with the name Castiel. He looked at Sasuke and approached him, causing Karin to become very defensive and protective of her unconscious crush.

"Don't come any closer towards Sasuke." Karin said as she stepped back with Sasuke's body, taking the sudden and impossible appearance of a strange, trench-coat-wearing man as a situation requiring caution.

"I don't intend to harm him." Castiel spoke as he followed Karin.

Suigetsu, thinking that Castiel was some sort of threat as well, pulled out the Executioner's Blade and swung it at Castiel. The blade made contact with his left shoulder blade, cutting a huge chunk of it off. Instead of making him suffer from the pain, Castiel just stopped and turned his head at Suigetsu with a look similar to the one Sasuke gave him when he was told not to kill. Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo watch speechlessly as Castiel's shoulder and trench coat mended themselves at inhuman (relative to this world) speed; way faster than a Jinchuriki's regeneration with clothes mending as an added bonus.

Castiel then raised his left hand and sent the Executioner's Blade flying. Suigetsu was not amused while Karin was dumbfounded. She had not felt chakra present in the ability Castiel had used. She felt something else; a pure energy that was laced in sadness and self-loathing and the desire for redemption that moved like waves of all kinds. It most certainly did not feel sexy like Sasuke's chakra or disgusting like Suigetsu's chakra; it just felt like it was just there and misplaced.

Karin then felt her body become stiff, along with Suigetsu. Jugo was spared from this due to being shy and still in control of himself. Suigetsu struggled against the stiffness to realize it was not coming from himself, but the newcomer.

"He's not going to hurt your friend." the girl said, "He's going to heal him, just like he did for me and the other villagers."

Castiel placed two fingers on Sasuke's unconscious head, despite the death glare Karin was giving him. A small burst of white light emanated from Castiel's fingertips, causing Sasuke to wake up instantly with a bit of shock on his face as if someone actually managed to startle him awake. He also fell out of Karin's arms due to jolting up in the process of awakening, which Suigetsu would have snickered at, but was currently awed by the fact some random stranger that a girl prayed for healed his teammate. Karin was also a bit surprised by this but was more focused on the fact Sasuke fell to the ground and was checking to make sure no funny business was going on with him.

"Sasuke, are you alright?!" Karin asked as she squatted on the ground the moment the invisible hold on her was released.

"I'm fine." Sasuke said coldly, "Where am I?"

"You are in Uree-mura," the girl said.

Sasuke looked at the girl and then Castiel, who was still standing over him. That was when he rose an eyebrow. He saw a pair of feathered, golden wings that faded to white towards the tips. It was odd. Sure, he had seen people who looked really weird before, but this was the first instance he had seen someone with giant dove-esque wings, wearing a strange looking trench coat.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I am Castiel." Castiel said. "I healed you from your severe dehydration and internal damages that were located around your shoulder area."

"Hold on," Karin butted in as she adjusted her glasses. "How you know that there was internal damages? From what I saw there was no bleeding, bruising, or broken bones."

"Your senses are too dull to detect them." Castiel stated simply.

"Excuse me?!" Karin asked, sounding highly offended. "I am a sensor type and I know my senses are sharp!"

"I don't mean chakra sensing." Castiel replied, getting what she meant by "sensor type". "I meant sensing changes and damages on the molecular level."

Karin's left eye twitched with anger. She threw her fist at Castiel, aiming to strike him right in the head. However, that did not happen. Instead, Castiel caught her fist and with his telekinesis, threw the redhead girl back several feet. Suigetsu and Jugo were about to move in to protect Karin and Sasuke when Castiel grabbed Sasuke's wrist and disappeared with the sound of flapping wings. Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo gave astonished looks at the spot were the two were mere seconds ago.

Karin rushed up to the little girl and grabbed her by the collar of her clothes.

"Where did he take Sasuke?" Karin asked.

"I don't know." the girl said. "Castiel disappears a lot. He could be anywhere."

"Karin, hurting the little girl won't help us." Jugo said. "We need to find Sasuke ourselves."

Karin's eyes went back to the little girl. She really wanted to beat the girl for summoning Castiel but at the same time, Jugo had a point. So, she dropped the little girl and ran off with the remaining members of Team Hebi.

.

Dean's eyes once more reopened. Instead of being in the cell, he was strapped to a makeshift operating table. He yanked on his restraints, trying to get them to budge, but they were too strong. He looked around and saw jars of floating eyeballs, jars of blood, test tubes that were filled with disgusting white goop, a mass of tissue that was pulsing ever so often, and so many other gross things that screamed "this is a crappy, low budget lab".

The eldest Winchester then looked down at his own body and found that he was still wearing his clothes and not some stupid scrubs. Despite that relief, he did find wires going from underneath his clothes all the way to some monitors that displayed his vitals. He tried to read what they said, but immediately groaned when he realized it was written in Japanese. While Gabriel gave him and Sam understanding of the language, he just could not help, but be reminded of that stupid game show the jerky archangel threw them into.

After minutes of examining what crazy thing that Fate decided it was a good idea to through the Winchesters into, Orochimaru entered the room with some needles, a clipboard, and miscellaneous tools that doctors would use like stethoscopes.

"What are you going to do?" Dean asked flatly, "Play a psychopathic version of Dr. Sexy?"

"Oh I intend to play a bit." Orochimaru said, invading Dean's personal space in a disturbing manner, not the awkward manner that Castiel pulled off every now and again. "Now tell me, where do you want to start?"

"I would like you to start by letting Sam and I go, bast***!" Dean exclaimed.

"Oh, sorry. No can do." Orochimaru nearly purred. "But what I can do is collect some samples."

Orochimaru plunged a needle into Dean's thigh and began extracting blood from him. Once the needle was full, he removed the needle and set it down on a lab tray that was next to him. Orochimaru then picked up a knife and sliced open the right leg of Dean's jeans. Then came the painful part. The snake themed man then sliced off a swath of skin that included all three layers and was about two inches by three inches. Needless to say, Dean was biting down on his lip to stop himself from screaming like a little girl. And much to Dean's surprise, Orochimaru then applied what looked like alcohol to the wound and wrapped it up with a piece of cloth that was lying around.

"If you did this to my brother, I swear I will kick your ass!" Dean spat.

"Big talk for someone who can't even kick." Orochimaru commented with a chuckle. "Oh don't worry, I made sure I gave him the same treatments I am giving you now, only he was still sleeping."

Orochimaru then walked over to a pile of small sheets of paper. He picked one up and began focusing on it. Dean just stared at the man, wondering what he was doing. Orochimaru noticed this and looked very intrigued.

"Interesting." Orochimaru stated. "This tag was supposed to put you into a genjutsu, but apparently, your lack of chakra gives you immunity as well."

Dean seethed. He had enough of this crazy man. Deciding it was now or never due to Orochimaru's arsenal of drugs and medical torture stuff, he hastily said out loud "Cass, a sicko named Orochimaru-".

Before Dean could finish his version of a prayer, another needle plunged into him. This time it was in the chest and it was filled with a substance that had a very faint glow to it. As the strange stuff got pushed into him, Dean could feel a burning sensation in the area as it spread underneath his skin. It became so much that he passed out. The last thing he saw was the insane look on Orochimaru's face.

' _Screw you, Oroch..._ ' was Dean's last thought before falling into a dreamless slumber.

.

.

Sasuke came a to stumble after landing next to Castiel. That pseudo-flight, teleportation thing that Castiel had done caught him completely off guard, which just does not happen, especially after training under Orochimaru for three years. He glared at Castiel and was ready to strike him when he heard a familiar voice that sent cold, dark vibes through Sasuke's heart.

"Castiel, Sasuke I did not expect to see you."

It was Itachi (without his Akatsuki cloak, but the boy didn't care about that). Sasuke's soul broiled with rage. Castiel had brought him to his brother without any hint or notice while he was still weak from Orochimaru's escape through the curse mark.

Seeing Sasuke's rage, Itachi gave a sad look, confusing the younger Uchiha. Something was wrong, and he could feel it. He had anticipated that every time he crossed paths with his older brother, they would fight until one of them was covered in blood and sweat that held the taste of hatred whenever a drop soiled their tongues.

"Why did you bring me here?" Sasuke spat at Castiel.

"When I heard that your name was Sasuke, I wanted to help you." Castiel stated.

Sasuke spoke no words, but rather conveyed his thoughts with a glare. Castiel sighed, this was not going to be easy for anyone.

"I don't want what happened between me and my siblings to happen to you." Castiel added on, "You need your brother."

Sasuke continued to glare. He didn't give two craps about what happened to Castiel and his family. He only wanted to see Itachi dead at his feet. He wanted to avenge his clan. He wanted whatever would bring him peace of mind and guarantee that his suffering would stop.

"No, I don't." Sasuke said with his voice sounding colder than ice laced in venom. "And I will prove it by killing him!"

Sasuke, with shuriken in hand, lunged for his older brother, rage and fury burning behind his pupils as if they were the windows to Hell. Itachi bowed his head, closing his eyes, waiting for the hit. Sasuke released the hand-held weapons at his brother's jugular vein with all of his strength behind them. The shuriken embedded themselves in the intended body part, but Sasuke was not happy. No, he was irritated. Castiel had taken the hit instead of Itachi by teleporting in front of the older Uchiha.

"Why are you defending him?" Sasuke demanded. "He murdered my clan! He hates me!"

Castiel cast a look at Itachi. The two held a silent conversation with their eyes. The angel nodded eventually, and Itachi sighed.

"Sasuke, it's time you learned the truth…" Itachi began, confusing his younger brother.

"Truth?" Sasuke asked, "The only thing that is true here is that you're a monster!"

Itachi closed his eyes, holding back the tears that had wanted to come out for several years. It was hard, but he managed. Despite this, his voice did not waver, "That was a cover…"

Sasuke made a face that Castiel could consider the cousin of Sam's b***h face. Well if the face Sam occasionally made was a b***h face. Only in this case, it was angrier and more expressive.

"Sixteen years ago, after the Nine Tailed Fox attacked the village," Itachi began, making Sasuke raise an irritated eyebrow, "People realized that the tailed beast was controlled by an Uchiha after seeing a Mangekyo Sharingan in its eyes. They started to fear us and our Sharingan and placed the entire clan in one place for monitoring purposes."

At this point, Sasuke's curiosity was perked. Sure, he was positive that most of the stuff his brother was saying was bullcrap, but he wanted to see how far this would go. In Castiel's case, the angel was listening as this was an event he had not heard of yet.

"Many of our clan grew restless and desired change. Our father began planning a coup and wanted me to be within the ANBU ranks to gather sensitive information." Itachi continued, "It wasn't before long that Danzo picked up on everything and attacked Shisui for his ability to alter the mind of multiple people at once. Shisui then entrusted his left eye to me for protection and killed himself. Days later, I was presented with two options from Danzo..."

Sasuke listened to the two options that had been given to his brother and felt a bit of something deep in his heart. He wasn't sure what it was as most of his feelings had revolved around hating his brother for majority of his life. One thing for certain was he did not approve of the two options as both meant death for his entire family either way.

"Please understand what I did was to protect you and motivate you." Itachi spoke after finishing the truth. "It was necessary."

Those words were ones that Sasuke wanted to refuse believing. He shook his head as he backed away a bit, his perception of everything turning upside down. He wanted to believe this was a trap with the sole purpose of giving him a sense of false security.

"Sasuke, are you alright?" Itachi asked as he approached his younger brother, reaching towards him.

"Stay away from me!" Sasuke shouted, trying to cope with the inner turmoil as he covered his eyes to protect them.

"Sasuke, I am not going to take your eyes." Itachi stated.

Sasuke's hands moved a bit down, but were still close enough to his eyes to move them back into their previous position should the need arise. Instead of what he expected, he found two fingertips being nudged into his forehead a bit roughly. They were Itachi's. Memories of times Itachi poking his forehead flooded his mind. The gesture had been used playfully by his older brother to show his love for his little brother. It had been so long since his brother had done this that he had forgot what had happened that very last time he poked his forehead.

Itachi removed his fingers from Sasuke's forehead, and said, "If you need time to process this, I understand."

Before Sasuke could respond, Castiel had went from what could be considered "calmer than any human could ever hope to pull off" to a bit of worry spreading across his visage. Itachi noticed this and gave a nearly invisible questioning look.

"Dean just prayed and sounded very distressed." Castiel spoke.

"Why don't you just go to him?" Sasuke asked a bit rudely, still trying to keep some distance from Itachi.

"It's not as simple as the little girl who prayed for me to heal you." Castiel replied, ignoring Sasuke's bad attitude. "I put sigils on Dean to keep angels from sensing him years ago. Not only that, his prayer was cut off too quickly for him to give the location. All I got was the name of what I presume is his captor."

"Who was it?" Itachi asked.

"He said, and I quote "a sicko named Orochimaru"." Castiel said. "I fail to understand how someone who is sick was able to capture him, though."

"Orochimaru?" Itachi asked and glanced at Sasuke, "Didn't you kill him?"

"Yes, but he somehow managed to revive himself while inside me." Sasuke said with a straight face.

Itachi understood what Sasuke meant and felt that Orochimaru had crossed the line. He turned to Castiel and said, "I have a list of bases he has. I am not sure which one he is likely to be in."

"I know of one. It is the one near the Village Hidden in the Grass." Sasuke spoke, being surprisingly helpful considering his bad attitude, "We had abandoned it after my former teammates caused heavy damages. He probably went back, assuming no one would look for him there now."

"Do you have a map of where it is located?" Castiel asked.

Instead of saying yes or no, Sasuke pulled out a map and pointed to the area of the base, which had been marked. Without warning, Castiel grabbed the map and teleported away, leaving the two Uchiha brothers behind. The Seraph could only hope that they could talk things out without weapons at this point.

.

Chatter echoed off the dark, torch lit walls. Voices speaking of what was to happen next. Gabriel gripped his blade as he pressed himself against the backside of one of the walls, hiding himself from the ones speaking. His brows were furrowed with curiosity, wondering what little "ingenious" plan was being cooked up now.

"I assure you that all will go as smooth as possible." one voice said, "Sure there maybe one or two minor things such as a cosmic temper tantrum, but I promise that you won't even get a scratch in the process."

"I better not die." another spoke, "I have already had to deal with two of your kind and I do not wish to add another threat towards _my_ village to the list."

"As long as you're compatible, you'll be just fine." a third voice said, obviously sounding a bit irritated, "Now let's get on with what we came here to do so I never have to work with either of you again. Especially, _you_."

Gabriel tried to keep silent as he moved closer and closer to the edge of the wall to get a better look of the situation. He already knew who was talking and was a bit surprised that two of the voices were ones he was sure he left in his funhouse dimension. He turned his head a bit and saw the owner of the first voice painting sigils on a cage with blood. Gabriel became alarmed, an occurrence that rarely happened. The three dumbasses were trying to release someone who should never be released again. He wanted to crash the idiot trio's idea of a party, but stopped himself. He wasn't suicidal this time. He was needed to help fix the damages that had been caused, after all, that was why he was brought back. Sure, he still stood by the fact that not many should know he was alive and kicking again, but he was sure that was not going to last for much longer.

' _I need to get this back to little Cassie, the Winchesters, and their pet demons._ ' Gabriel thought.

Just as Gabriel was about to tip toe his way out of the tomb-esque segment of Hell, he was forced against a wall. He winced as he heard the wall behind him nearly shatter from the impact. When he opened his eyes, he came face to face with the ugliest demon he had ever seen. He would point it out, but he didn't have a death wish at the moment.

"Looks like we got a fly on the wall that needs to be squashed." the owner of the third voice said as Gabriel eye's met the eyes of a powerful black-eyed demon.


End file.
